Dragon User Magazine Issue 17

75P US3.25 September 1934

The independent Dragon magazine

Shards in
focus

Return of
the ring

Ikon disc
drive review

A

™&y Business

4gam f

and fuck.

A3 off

££5 -was

SAVE
OVER

£10

AD 3 of the Franklins Tbmb
Trilogy featuring eveiylxxfy's
favourite detective - Dan
Diamond.

Normally £29.85
NOW £19

£4 off each of these six fabulous games

GAMES COMPENDIUM .
NIGHTFLIGHT

STAE JAMMER

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WmstecfWar

£4.95

FraxJdinsTomb

£7.95

Los - :, in Space

£755

Fishy Business

£7.95

Wizard War

£4.95

Utility DAS.

£9.95

Turtle Graphics

£5.96

Games Compendium

£3.95

Nigli-Jllght

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Star Jammer

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Golf

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VulcanOffX

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Super SkiU Hangman

£3.95

Franklins Tomb Trilogy

£19.00

Please make cheque&T.O. Jpa^able to Salamander Software

Name,

Address

Total £ enclosed

□ Please send me you? fuLD colour catalogue.

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Tefephone number

(All departments)

01-437 4343

Editor

BR E NOON GORE

Assistant Editor
GORDON ROSS
Software Editor
GRAHAM TAYLOR

Editorial Secretary
GEHALDiNE SMYTH

Advertisement Manager
DAVID LAKE
Advertisement Executive

SIMON LANGSTON
Administration
THERESA LACY

Manning Editor
DUNCAN SCOT

Publishing Director
JENNY IRELAND

Subscriptions

UK £10 for 12 issues

Overseas (surface) E16 for 12 issues

JSSN 0565-0177. Telex: 293375

Dragon User. 12 13 Little Newport Street
London WC2R 3LD.

US address: e.o Business Press
international, 20S East 42nd St New York

NY1OO0T7.

Published by Sunshine Books, Scot Press

Ltd. ©Sunshine Books 1984.

Typesetting by Chesham Pr&ss. Chesham

Bucks Printed by Eden Fisher (Southendi
Ltd, Southend-on-Sea. Essex.
Distributed by S.M. Distribution London
SW9, 01-274 B611. TeFe* : 261643

Registered at the Post Office as a news-
paper,

Dragon and its logo are trademarks of

Dragon Data Ltd

How to submit articles

The quality ot the material we can publish in
Oeagon User each month will, to a very great
extend, depend on the qualify of the dis-
coveries thai you can make with your Dra-
gon. The Dragor> 32 computer was launched
on to the market with a powerful version of
Basic, but with very poor documentation,

Every one of us who uses a D rago n wil I be
able to discover new tricks and quirks almost
every day. To help other Dragon users keep
up with the speed of the development each
of us must assume that we made the
discovery firs! - that means writing it down
and passing Ft on to others.

Articles which are submitted to Dragon
User for publication should not be more than
30OO words long. All submissions should be
typed. Please leave wide margins and a
double space between each line Programs
should, whenever possible, be computer
printed on plain white paper and be accom-
panied by a tape of the program.

We cannot guarantee to return every
submitted article or program, so please keep
a copy, if you want to have your program
returned you must include a stamped
addressed envelope

Contents

SUNSWME

Letters

including this month problems with the
Dragon's string handling and saving
routines, help for readers with potentio-
meter type joysticks and tips on entering
machine code listings

News 8

Spanish conquistador takes over from
Dragon Data as GEC joins in the MSX
revolution — Gordon Ross explains what
MSX is all about

Bargain software 12

Save £1,50 off a selection of games and
adventures from Computer Rentals with
the Dragon User discount club

14

Slaloming down (he slippery ski slopes
John Striven soldiers on to countless
missions against the invading software
armies

5 1 Ikon drive

Software mix

27

Brian Cadge takes a look at the Ultra Drive
from Ikon, a handy, easy-to-use loading

and storage system

Versatile interfacing 28

Keith and Steven Brain review the rather

unusual RS232 l-O Port Interface from
Steve's Electronics supply

30

Daisy wheel/dot-matrix 18

lolo ap Gwynn compares and contrast the
Shinwa CP&0 printer with [he Smith-
Corona TP*1

Shard's diary 23

Gordon Ross interviews Stephen Maltz of
Shards software, one of the leading Dra-
gon software houses, which numbers Pet-
tig re ws Diary amongst its star titles [Cover

photo by Colin Barker)

Nimbo

24

Microdeal consultant Chas Robertson
brings you our program of the month —
Nimbo for the Dragon 32 and 64

Open file

Your chance to get into print — Escape,
Easy Edit and Shoot are our published

readers programs this month

Between the covers 38

Mike Harrison rounds up his series of book
reviews with a look at three machine code
books for the Dragon

Ring scoop 4|

Wintersoft is offering 50 copies of its latest
adventure, the Return of the Ring, to the
lucky winners of our special Ringworid
competition

Adventure column 45

Mike Gerrard's insight into the mysterious

world of adventures

Dragon Answers 47

Wan! to know how to control the cursor,
use Ihe remote jack as a switch far
external devices or give a warm or cold
Start to your micro — then Brian Cadge is
the person you're after, with his regular
answering lifeline

Competition Corner 50

£250 of software from Microdeal is [his
months prize to Gordon Lee's number
puzzle

Editorial

S!fch^ 9 ° n Data a PP ear6d t0 ^ one of the most successful young

British micro company around. Backed by Mettoy, Dragon appeared from nowhero to
produce a machine with 32K RAM, colour graphics, 16K ROM and a 6809
microprocessor, More importantly, it was available afa time when there were lengT
delays for Acorn, Sinclair and Commodore machines V

Dragon quickly established a sizeable user base and was stocked by giant retail
chatns such as Boots and Dixons. Independent software and book publishes con
provided a plethora of additional products. So, what wen! wrongs P UDIIsn ^s soon

Dragon s main product — the 32 - though regarded as sliqhlly old fashioned now

the 64 and the Professional, were a long time in coming Nevertheless Commodore's 64
is st.IL se ing extremely well and it was launched at around the same time a?7e D a aon
Part of Dragons difficulties undoubtedly stem from Ihe cyclical nature oUheXro
business, As much a 5 three quarters of a company s annual sales may be generated n
the three month Chrrstmas period, Dragon, faced with booming demand \Z £5 uo
production to meet anticipated sales. Consequently, when those sales fa «n Tn
materialise, Dragon found itself with a massive cashflow problem to

los"'ladlv S t£lt C SlT GE ° and ° lh6rS kept the COmpa ^ af,oat ' but the ™P*^ was
lost, badly, that impetus was never regained

tha^Tandv" w,IUakr3lV iSapPeared com e lete ^ Thou 9 h » now appears unlikely
mat landy < will take over Dragon, a mysterious Spanish company has steooed in

mThin rd S . A ' S n ° W faVOUnte t0 ta * e 0ver ^^ufaciure of the Dragon 32 a^d 64
machines, A new company, Touchmaster, is also being set up by ey-Draqon directors
Bnan Moore and Richard Wadman, to provide Eurohard with s Wand soKe up P od

September 1984 Dragon User 3

THE FIRST "ZAXXON" STYLE GAME
FOR THE DRAGON 32

ACTUAL SCREEN PHOTOGRAPHS

Pilot your helicopter gunship in a true

3-dimensional-like playfield,

Climb, dive and strafe enemy installations

to score points and extra fuel.

This superb game features 100% machine

code with fully animated, high res sprite

graphics.

A great first! and only

| Disc version £9.95)

£6-95

1. Under attack from enemy
fighters.

1. Missile attack an fuel
ins taxations,

3, Low level attack On
village.

4, Y$t another wove of

enemy fighters}

QUAZIMODO

Ws introduce QU A2I MODO
the hunchback, in his efforts
to rescue the damsel from her
fortrc&s prison.
You will nsad to jump the
parapets, cross the most 5,
escape the fi re balls and the
guards to succeed in this task.
10 screens and 4 difficulty
levels will present a great
challenge.
A joystick is required.

SUPERSOWL

This brilliant and original

simulation of American Pro*
Football starts with tha kick*
off and the ball hanging in the
air as Floyd, the star running
back of the Dallas Cowboys
jumps to catch it.
Will big match nerves cause him
to fumble or will his catch be a
clean one? I f ha catches it, how
far can he run before the mighty
men of Washington thump him
to tha flround?

A unique machine code game,
for which a joystick is required.

AT OUR

NEWLOWPHICE

OFONLY

£6.95 each

(CASSETTE!

£9,95 each

(DISC)

CABLE SOFTWARE IS NOW 1 YEAR OLD AND TO SHOW OUR APPRECIATION TO DRAGON OWNERS
FOR THEIR SUPPORT IN OUR FIRST YEAR, WE HAVE REDUCED THE COST OF ALL DRAGON SOFTWARE

LIVING STONE

The first version of
this complex strategic
game available on
any home micro.
Was £8,75
NOW ONLY

£6.95

GEOGRAPHY

Learning is fun with

Cable.

NOW ONLY

£6.95

PRO-FILE

Data Filing and
Retrieval System.
WAS £15.95
NOW ONLY

£14.95

TROJAN

LIGHT PEN

Still the best value

Light Pen on the

market.

ONLY

£11.50

Trace Race

&*

A

OUR SPECIAL OFFER ON THESE SIX GAMES
Order 1 Title for £5 - Any 2 Titles for £9 - Any 3 Titles for £1 2 (Prices include P & P and VAT)

Please supptv ma with: —

ZAK'S SON QUAZIMODO SUPERBQWL

^ £6.45 eoch (CosfetteJ or £9.95 each (Disc}

LIVINGSTONE «.,.,GEOGRAPHY

g £6.95 each (Cassette only)

DRONE .....DRAGRUNNER .....TRACE RACE

CAVE FIGHTER .....BACCARAT

PHONE IN YOUR ACCESS ORDERS TO
0582 59U93 (fla.m. - 6p.m.l

• •

I

Send cheque with order tor

CABLE SOFTWARE

P.S.L, MARKETING, FREEPOST,

LUTON, BEDS. LU3 2BR

< No- ^tamp required)

Name

DRAGON RACERMASP INVASSON

SEE SPECI A L PRICES ABOVE

.....PRO-FILE @ £14.95 each (Cassette/
-...TROJAN LIGHT PEN <P £1 1,50 each
ALL PRICES INCLUDE P & P AND VAT

-y\4jr>&~.

Address

fft* relerrncr to "ZAXXOIf" Imfucft if j intttttfHf {tide mart of SEGA ENTERPRISES INC.} is .n no -taw intended to luogeit mn r £Qaatt.r,Qi\ tm'vnen Ctblr Strftntarr Umit-d ami Srcm Entirptut* Inn.

4 Dragon User September i 984

Letters

This is the chance to air your views — send your tips, compliments and complaints to Letters
Page, Dragon User, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 3LD.

Light-pen
listing

THE LISTING below produces a

graph when used in conjunction

with the light-pen project [Dragon

iter. April, 1984),

10 CLS: PMQDE 4,1: PCLS:

SCREEN 1,1

20 LINE— (0,180). PRESET

30 FORX=1T0 255

40 A=(JGYSTK(C)M):Y=iaG-A

60 IF Y<1 THEN Y=1

60 IFY>180THENY=180

70 LINE — (X,¥) n PSET: NEXT

80 PCLS: GOTO 20

T Peakson
Daventry

Northants

String
saving

ONE unwanted facet of the Dra-
gon' s string handling and saving
routines can cause problems,
especially with datafile programs
based on string arrays allowing a
maximum of 255 characters per
array element.

While the Dragon will allow 255
characters to be entered into a
string, if this is recorded and
subsequently reloaded into the
program, only 249 characters are
input. This can cause unexpected
and very difficult-to -trace FC
crashes, especially if the program
is expecting a special control
character as the final character.
The solution is to change lines in
the program which specify a max-
imum of 255 characters to 249.
Thereafter, there should be no
problems in saving and loading
data from these programs.

Robin Hamilton

Loughborough

Leicester

Troublesome

MIKE Harrison's most useful re-
view of Dragon Books. (June 1984
Dragon Ussr) mentions a tip
given in Dragon Trainer for in-
creasing the available memory to
30K-by POKEing 6 into locations
25 f 27 h 29 and 31. My tip is
don't. On my machine at least, it
does indeed increase the available
memory, but results in UL error
messages when the program is
run.

Cathy Hyde's method, in
September 1983 Dragon
Answers, is to use P0KE25.6-
P0KE&H600,0:NEW, and this
works perfectly. In fact, I found
that POKE&H60C0 is unneces-
sary, as address S600 (or 1536}
contains the value to start with.
The only snag with this method is
that the command NEW cannot be
part of a program, and
P0KE25.6:NEW must be entered
as a direct command before the
program is loaded.

Perhaps one of your readers
has solved the problem of embed-
ding a command in a program to
make use of the Dragon's full
memory, by liberating the 6K
normally reserved for graphics,
without any attendant snags.

R Hadekel
London

joysticks

IN THE June edition of Dragon
User Brian Cadge replied to a
reader that the Dragon uses
potentiometer-type joysticks
While this is perfectly correct, I
have found if impossible to use
joysticks with potentiometers fit-
ted with my Dragon.

My problems started when I
read an article in Dragon User
where the circuit diagram of the
Dragon joysticks was shown, us-
ing 100K potentiometers.

Being an electronics engineer I
bought a professional type 100K
potentiometer joystick and wired
it to the circuit diagram. Here
problems arose. The Dragon's
A/D converter will return a value
between and 63 corresponding
to the position of the potentio-
meter track.

The potentiometers track is
270 degrees, but when fitted to a
joystick the wiper can only move

r

25 degrees; so instead of getting
a change of 63 you find you get a
change of only seven, This
causes problems because most
commercially available programs
use and 63 to move the screen
character.

My answer to the problem was
to modify a switch -type joystick.
With the joystick in the centre
position the A/D converter returns
about 32 degrees; as soon as the
joystick is moved one switch
closes and the "wiper" is taken to
one extreme (0 corresponding to
or 1O0K corresponding to 63).

My modified joystick has been
working for several months now
with no problems.

Graham Marshal!
Grays
Essex

Scrolling
disaster

I EXPECT someone has already
pointed out the total disaster that
wouid result from using the ob-
ject code of the Screen Scroll by
Mr Philips in your April Letters
column. Most of the operands
and postbytes are missing, so
entering it in hex with a monitor,
or the Basic as listed, would not
scroll the screen. The first in-
struction loads X from &H963S,
somewhere in ROM, and from
there on, who knows?

The assembly source code
looks a little more sensible, but
thePULSCC — PSHSCCIoopis
liable to corrupt the return
address. Another mystery is the
use of CM PA #0, the instruction
TSTA does this in one byte, but
the preceding DECAsetsthe flags
anyway so it is redundant, and
with a screen scroti you need all
the speed you can get. So much
for details to get it working, but I
still don't see why you need the

k] 1

1

(1)

2

(2)

3

(10)

4

(a)

5

W

6

H

7

(3)

8

(5)

9

H

10 (9)

Buzzard Bait. .„, Microdeal

Cuthbert in Space Microdeal

Mr Org Microdeal

Dungeon Raid Microdeal

Hungry Horace., Melbourne House

Kriegspiel Beyond

Dragon Chess , Oasis

Bug Diver Mastertronics

The King ,..„ Microdeal

Skramble. — , „„„,. Microdeal

Chart compiled by Websters Software

inner loop with a count from
&HB9. Hi-res graphics addresses
are continuous so there will be
wrap round anyway with the
program as written, so the extra
test to detect the end of a line
width just wastes time,

I suppose after all that I'd
better give a version for someone
else to pull apart!
9E BA LDX &BA Set X to

Graphics Base addr.
32 7F LEAS, -1,8 Dec Stack

pointer to miss stack.
35 01 LOOP PUIS CC Get carry

from last loop,
69 80 ROL ,X+ Rotate, bumping

Xto next byte,
34 01 PSHS CG Save carry.
9C B7 CMPX &B7 Compare X

with Graphics Top addr.
26 FS BNE LOOP Loop if not

done.
32 61 LEAS 1,S Restore S to

point to Return Addr.
39 RTS Return to Basic.
This is for Resolution graphics
and scrolling Left. For Colour you
need to rotate by two bits, so the
whole operation has to be done
twice. It cannot be done by insert-
ing an extra rotate instruction
without a way of carrying two bits
to the next loop. To scroll Right
use:

66 82 R0R , -X and work down,
loading X from &B7 (Gr. Top) and
comparing from &BA. (Gr Base).
You can avoid using the stack
to store the carry by using TFR
CCA and back, but Mr Philips'
method is in this case faster,

Stuart Sampson
West Yorkshire

Dictated
message

WITH regard to entering machine
code listings, such as "Grand
Prix" by Brian Cadge in your June
issue, the easiest and most
troublB-free method I have found,
is to dictate the code on to
cassette, thus leaving full concen-
tration for avoiding typing errors
during playback. Unfortunately,
the added complexity of symbols
in Basic program listings makes
this oral method a time-saver only
for entering machine code.

W H Jones
Fishguard

IF ANY readers are having trou-
ble loading Brian Cadges Grand
Prix game, send an SAE to
Dragon User and we will provide
you with a typed sheet of loading
hints written by Brian,

September 1984 Dragon User 5

Make your Dragon turn into a real computer with the
new Double-Density Delta Disk System.

Th# Oofta Disk System Gives You . . .

An affordable disk system.

Powerful Delta disk commands.

Lets you produce and handle random access

files as easily as serial files.

Random sequential and indexed file handling.

Simple plug into Dragon

there are no HARDWARE MODS needed to run DELTA!

Easily expandable 180k to 1.4 megabyte

ON UNE storage,

Full range of business utility and gomes

software AVAILABLE NOW I

The price you see is the price you pay.
NO HIDDEN RAM upgrade costs,
Uses under 2K of user - RAM as DELTA
is held in EPROM.

Enables programmer to easily produce
applications Software which automatically
starts up and operates without any
intervention from the user.

O*

SI*

to***

fell**

DCLTA CARTRIDGE - contains MLTAdbk Operating System, u»r Manual, demonstration dbketl* . £120.00

JDBJA 1 - DELIA Cartridge, User Manual, a single-sJded 40-trock (1 80I0 drive plus Cable £284 05

D€LTA2- a*OELTALburvvn^asingte-3kded80-rTactt(36Ol0drlve ...£332.35

Dtek Inderface cable (supplied wtth DELIA 1 or 2) , . . , . . . , £9.95

ENCODE* Wcwembter/dirOMernbtef/edHof - integrolwtth DELTA ,. £24.95

HOME ACCOUNTS full home package for DELTA El 4,95

INFORM - Data Base Management System commissioned especlallyf or DELTA Systems £39.95

WM,

FLEX FOR

THEDH

USING

FLEX is an internationally accepted Disk Operating System, It features dynamic file
al location., random and sequential fib handling, executive file capability, auto drive
searching, file dating, space compression, user environment control, error messages in
English and over 30 commands for disk operation.

A large number of high quality software packages ore available to run under FLEX
ranging from spreadsheets to word processors, compilers to new languages. FLEX is an
elegant, friendly and efficient disk based operating system. FLEX is available now for the
64K DRAGONS using PREMIER'S DELTA disk system. It is supplied complete with a 200
page manual- An editor and assembler are both supplied with the package.

FLEX is the registered I if ode mark of Technical Systems Incorporated. £e * 2S 1nC - vAT ond p&p -

DOODLE
MASTER

DOODLE -MASTER provides 'he DRAGON 32 graphics programmer wild
comprehensive facilities lor the definition of graphic", shapes.

* Create hkjh quality stapes/characters which con be used in BASIC or
MACHINE CODS program*

+ Fully compatible with ENCODER »

* Stop** con b» generated and edited mony lime* faster

* A WRITE facility allows hhe user 1o aeneretl* a s-erie* o' preform line*
containing DATA or FCB statemenls repfesei-ihng 1h* che War .'shape.
which OLrlomotkolly append themselves lo the current program in memory

+ Shape data can be saved to cassette or disk

* A LINK locilily allows shapes to be joined togemer either vertically or
horizontally

* A PMODE adjust function allows the user to examine the generated shape in
another PMODE mode

Price: Cartridge E 17,95 DELTA DISK E 16,95

TOOLKIT FOR
DRAGON 32

PREMIER'S ASTONISHING NEW TOOLKIT FOR THE DRAGON 31 PERFORMS
THE FOLLOWING AMAZING FUNCTIONS;

• f U Li tcrltn editor ol lowing copying.
« Eight PROGRAMMABLE KEYS.

• 35 full coiovr low<r**oluttoii graphic* screen*.

• Full range of ERROR HANDLING commands with several RESUME option*.

• OVER SIXTY HEW WQflDS fully linked to yew DRAGON BASIC.
» VARLA&LE GOTO ■■GOSUfii commands.

• Superb TRACE command wv+iich uses tc-p right of screen only, thus leaving
graphics/tew! intact.

• SEARCH and REPLAC E command* lor easier program mod if i cat ion.

• Comes complete with COMPREHENSIVE 40+ page MANUAL
Available in CARTRIDGE or DELTA enhancement format £2<J.W inc.

ofREfTUER

PMMIER MICROSYSTEMS

206 Croydon Road, Anertey London SE30 7YX

T*4*ehion*01-6ev71J1 pfTTHTW

Dealer and export coders welcomed.

POSTAGE ond PACKiMG
Tap** 1 - Z 95p. 3 * SI 25.

■Cartridges £2.50

Drives or Dt* pactoge* W 50

AIL PRICES INCLUDE VAT,
Send SAE tor lull catalogue
ALLCW 2fl DAYS FOB KUVEJrY

6 Dragon User September 1 984

?^^a

■■

1 Sir' *s

II

$£A& i

3 *5 ^ -

5 s? ti,^ J
<s ft ft- 5.

3 B \>

Sft.5

■ s £
Sa'§

Ole!

MANUFACTURE of the Dra-
gon 32 and 64 looks certain to
move to Spain as negotiations
move into the final stages at
Dragon Data,

At the time of going to

press, Spanish firm Eurohard,
set' up with the help of the
Spanish government specifi-
cally to manufacture compu-
ters in the Exlre Madura re-
gion (a development area 180
miles south west of Madrid,
close to the Portuguese bor-
der) exchanged contracts with
Dragon Data to manufacture
the Dragon machines. The
firm, prior to the receiver being
called in, was negotiating with
Dragon to obtain a licence to
manufacture the machines in
Spain,

GEC is planning to market
the Dragon in the UK and
after- sales support will be pro-
vided by Touchmaster — a
new company made up of
ex-Dragon Data employees,
headed by ex- managing direc-
tor Brian Moore, and former
marketing director Richard
Wadman.

Touchmasters first project
wilt be the manufacture of a
grafpad — previewed at the
CETEX show in May and to be
launched at the PCW show
this September.

Toacbmaster's grafpad

Prutech — the high technol-
ogy investment arm of the
Prudential Insurance group, is
thought to be the main backer
of Touchmaster, The com-
pany also had a 49 per cent
stake in Dragon Data,

Tandy withdrew from nego-
tiations after its final bid was
rejected by the receiver, The
company had hoped to ac-
quire thfe Dragon name and
finished goods stock in order
to provide support to users.

The formation of Touch-
master and the continuing
manufacture of the Dragon is
good news for users worried
about flagging support for their
micros. Dragon Data's ex-
isting slock of software, utili-
ties and peripherals will be
sold by Touchmaster, Brian
Moore commented that there
should be some good bar-
gains available once plans
have been finalised. It is not
known how many Dragons are
left in stocks nor what will
happen to them.

The future of the Dragon
Professional and project beta
is uncertain. It is also not
known whether Touchmaster
or Eurohard will take over
Dragon Data's existing liabili-
ties.

BROTHER has launched a new range of printers for the home
computer market. Of interest to Dragon Users is the M1009
Impact dot matrix printer which is expected to retail for under
£300, The M10Q9 uses a 9 pin print head, has the full 96 ASCti
character set, a graphics set and international characters. The
standard interface on the printer is the Centronics parallel, though.
it is expected that Brother writ afso manufacture a dual interface
(HS233 and Centronics} in the near future.

The printer, which is mains powered, has a print speed of 50
characters per second on normal characters (80 columns, 10
characters per inch). An expanded face (40 columns, 5 charac-
ters per inch) and condensed face (132 columns) is also printable.
Paper up to a maximum width of 10 inches can be used, and an
original plus two copies can be printed at one time. For further
details contact Brother at Shepley Street. Guide Bridge, Aude-
nshaw, Manchester M34 5JD.

THE FATE of the Dragon Us-
ers club hangs in the balance
as negotiations get under way
between John Richardson
formerly of Games and Com-
puters, and David Tomlinson
of Cotswold Computers who
has expressed an interest in
taking over the club.

Several readers have writ-
ten and phoned Dragon User
complaining that the club has
cashed cheques and failed to
deliver the goods. Computer-
house, which supposedly took
over the running of the club
(see Dragon User, April)
admits that there are a num-
ber of outstanding orders and
liabilities, but says it didn't
take over the club and is
therefore not responsible for
existing liabilities.

The story is a complicated
one. Alan Monaghan of Com-
puterhouse said that a com-
pany was set up with the
intention of running the Dra-
gon Users Club, however, this
was never actually done, "We
found it impractical to take
over the Users club and sug-
gested to John Richardson
that he make other deals."
Computerhouse then became
Computerhouse UK Limited
and at present distributes the
Pied Piper micro, John
Richardson is a director of
Computerhouse UK Ltd, He
was unavailable for comment,
though John Bobitol of Com-
puterhouse suggested that all
inquiries about outstanding
orders should be directed to
John at his home address: 68
Gorse Lane, Upton, Poole,
Dorset,

Computerhouse has re-
ceived a number of callers, but
maintains that it cannot help
anybody as the club is the
responsibility of John Richard-
son and not Computerhouse,
John merely happens to work
for Computerhouse. "I'd like
to see it all settled' 1 said Alan
Monaghan, so presumably
would Users who have to date
seen nothing for their money.

No joy for
Users club

Alan assured us that "some-
thing is being done" and that
part of the deal that John
Richardson organises will be
that people will get what they
ordered However, David
Tomlinson of Cotswold said
that any agreement he makes
with John Richardson will not
involve Cotswold taking over
the outstanding liabilities, and
he stressed that people
should not contact Cotswold
about these." The liabilities
are nothing to do with us 1 ' he
said.

Cotswold is interested in
taking over the list of club
members, thought to number
about 1 ,800 and to continue to
offer discounts to members —
possibly in the region of 10 per
cent.

Facilities to produce a
magazine exist at Cotswold
Computers, though David
hopes that someone else will
be interested in compiling the
editorial contents of the maga-
zine should Cotswold begin
running the club. Anyone who
is interested is asked to con-
tact David at 6 Middle Row,
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
David added that it would be
impossible to undertake the
administration of the cassette
based magazine Dragon-
wings

At present negotiations are
still under way to find a solu-
tion to the problem, and it is
suggested that readers do not
send any money to the Club
until existing orders are hon-
oured.

8 Dragon User September 1984

THE NEWS that Dragon Data in conjunc-
tion with GEC. was to launch a Dragon
MSX machine prompts the question
"What exactly is MSX about?" The short
answer is that MSX is about compatability.
MSX is an operating system thai allows
software and peripherals for one micro to
work on others using the MSX standard.

Comparisons can be made with the
video trade — any VHS video recorder can
be used to play VHS video tapes. Similarly
with betamax, a betamax tape will play on
any of the many different brands of be-
tamax recorders. Philips tried launching its
own video recorder standard — the Philips
2000 around the same time as the VHS
and betamax systems were launched. The
project failed. Hence the importance of
compatability.

As Dragon owners know {often to their
disappointment) Commodore, Spectrum
and other software will not run on the
Dragon; even the Tandy, with all its simi-
larities to the Dragon, is not software
compatible. The result is that hardware
specific software has had to be program-
med for each individual micro. With the
arrival of MSX, all this will change.

September launch

The Japanese are the force behind
MSX. Eight Japanese manufacturers —
Canon, Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Sanyo,
Sony, Teleton and Toshiba have com-
bined to form a British MSX working group
to coordinate the launch of MSX in Britain,
and to liaise with software companies in
the UK to produce producl$ for MSX, The
expected official launch of MSX in Britain
is this September, and several British
software companies are believed to be
releasing software in September/October
including a number of companies that
produce software for the Dragon, such as
Premier Micro Systems, Hewson Consul-
tants, Computer Rentals, Mastertronics
and Sulis Software.

The MSX standard has been devised by
the American firm Microsoft and a total of
19 manufacturers are said to have ac-
quired a license to produce the machine.
The license is not cheap. "It is a rich mans
club not a poor man's" said Phifip Sutcliffe,
Overseas Export Manager of Microsoft
(UK & Scandinavia), who refused to spe-
cify the exact cost, though it is thought to
be in the region of 250,000 US dollars.

GEC was approached by the British
MSX working party in May at the CETEX
show in Earls Court, London with a view to
joining the group. The license that GEC
has acquired from Microsoft to manufac-
ture the micro is rumoured to be the sole
rights to produce MSX in Britain. (The
Japanese firms will be importing their
versions into Britain.) The company has
not yet joined the working party, which is
open to all manufacturers of MSX should
they wish to join.

Microsoft has set the specifications for
MSX hardware and software, though with-
in its guidelines individual manufacturers
are ai liberty to produce a design of their
choosing — provided compatibility is main-
tained. Thus a Sony disk drive for example
will work on a Hitachi micro, as will a

MSX-

what
now?

GEC Dragon was to launch a

MSX machine — what's all the

fuss about, by Gordon Ross

Sanyo Light pen and a Yamaha synthesis-
er.

The broad specifications laid down by
Microsoft provide that each of the
machines will use a ZB0 processor with a
32K ROM including Microsoft Basic and at
least 8K RAM, The same Tl video chip
giving a 40 x 24 text display (256 x 192
graphics resolution) with 16 colours avail-
able is used, together with the same Gl
three-channeJ sound chip on all versions.
Where a disk unit is available as an option,
3Vz inch disk drives will run Microsoft's
MSX disk operating system, MSX-DQS,
which is data compatible with MS-DOS
meaning that IBM files can be exported to
an MSX machine.

GEC s MSX machine is thought to have
64 K RAM. a ZSG processor and a built in
3Vz inch disk drive unit. It is not known
where the manufacture of the new
machine wili take place nor if Touchmas-
ter, the UK firm set up by ex -GEC Dragon
chiefs Brian Moore and Richard Wadman,
will have any part in the operation.

The Microsoft standard is a controver-
sial one, Several softwre companies are
disappointed that the manufacturers have
chosen the somewhat elderly ZQ0 proces-
sor. The relatively old technology, howev-
er, must be compared with the overall
concept of MSX, Distributors, small com-
puter dealers and the High Street retail
stores are extremely enthusiastic, The
demand from them is to stock MSX,
solving their merchandising problems.
With interchangeability, stores need not
worry about compatability. Further soft-
wane companies can cut development
costs by producing only one version of a

game and mass marketing it on the va-
rious MSX machines. This could lead to a
reduction in software prices.

Brian Moore, former managing director
of GEC Dragon, spoke at a major confer-
ence as far back as April about the
dangers to UK manufacturers of MSX.
"MSX could well dominate major sections
of the home computer market and com-
parisons with VHS and video recorders
can be readily drawn" said Brian, who
estimated that 100,000 to 150,000 units
will be available this year, Continuing with
bis speech, he said that predictions indi-
cated that the Japanese will take 30 to 35
per cent of the home computer market
"and that's for a product that hasn't even
arrived in this country yet"

Established business computer com-
panies are thought to have little to fear from
MSX. The machines are games oriented
and unsuitable for serious use at present-
However, through MSX- DOS there is a way
to compatability with the IBM PC and MSX
may offer compatability with business
machines in the future

The probable cost of MSX will be in the
region of E250-E3QQ Derek Madden of
Sanyo revealed that Sanyo's MSX
machine with 64K user RAM. 32K ROM
and 16K video ROM will be retailing for
£299.95, The machine, with built-in RS
modulator to connect to a light pen, will be
launched this September. A 12-month
warranty comes with the machine, which
can be returned to Sanyo on a prepaid
basis though the Post Office within a year.
A network of service centres around the
country should be in existence after the
expiry of the first 12 month warranty.

Derek envisages the launch of several
generations of MSX over the next seven or
eight years. This year MSX products will
be at entry level'' and by late 1965/eariy
1986 he foresaw the introduction of a new
range of machines with a "superchip" for
micro/audio and video products. "The
whole idea of MSX is upgradability" said
Derek, saying that the ZS0A chip will be
totally compatible with any new develop-
ments.

Former (StC Dragon
director Brian Moore
— forewamirtgs about
MSX

The immediate vision for GEC may not
be so bright. Brian Moore commented that
GEC was having trouble with components
supplies and might wait until the beginning
of next year before making its entry into
the MSX market,

Whether or not MSX will gain a foothold
in this country remains to be seen. The
Japanese have chosen Britain as their
overseas test market and with a reported
advertising campaign of £1 million on the
way. the stage is set for an interesting
battle in the home computer arena.B

September 1964 Dragon User 9

■

OPERATION

ffp&itc

6

ZZ.CJU 11

)

Please rush me a copy of Operation Safras

(Dragon)

To (Name}

(Address)

Please debit my Access. 1 ' Visa

A/C No

I enclose a cheque. 'P.O. remittance for £7,95.

(Signed)

All cheques/P O lo be made payable to
Shards Software

Suite G, Roycraft House,
Linton Road, Barking, Essex.
Tel: 01-591 7666 (4 lines).

10 Dragon User September 1984

The long awaited sequel
to Pettigrews Diary for
the Dragon 32. Includes
two free Shardsound
original music tracks.

£7.95 inc. vat

SHARDS

wwm <§*? raa mm

THE RING
OF

DARKNESS
PART II

At last the saga
continues . , .

The Guardian of Shedir
Is defeated, the Hell
spawned hordes of the Evil
Sage Meat bay. Now
Ring bearer, wield er of the
Four Bright Rings, must
face the greatest
challenge: to return the
Ring Of Darkness to its
creators on the hidden
planet Ringworld . . .
And somewhere at the
ends of time the forces of
evil are preparing their
revenge.

After one year of
development, Wintersoft
are proud to present the
mast sophisticated game
ever created for the
Dragon 32. Written 100% in
machine code, RETURN OF
THE RING is an astounding
multi program blend of
superb high resolution
colour graphics and
advanced routines that
allow you to communicate
with your computer in
complete sentences. You
will face challenge and
excitement as you and
your Ringworld
companions travel a
mysterious planet and
brave the dangers of an
amazing three-
dimensional forest moon.
An epic adventure
unrivalled for its wealth of
detail and diversity.

May luck travel your
path.

Please note: RETURN OF
THE RING is a complete
adventure. You need not
buy THE RING OF
DARKNESS to play it.

DEALERS PHONE
01-3675720

30 UPLANDS PARK ROAD,

ENFIELD, MIDDLESEX,

EN27PT

ALSOAVAILABLE:-
DRAGON 32

Return of thft Ring ...,,,..,.

The Ring of Darkness. .......

Dragon Trek

SPECTRUM aBK

The Ring of Darkness ,.„,.,,,,„.,,,

OltrC-1 48K

The Ring of Darkness , , , ,

Operation Gremlin , . , .

PBICES INCLUDE P&P, VAT, AND OUR LIFETIME
GUARANTEE.

SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE F ROM
LARGE R BRANCHES OF ,

£9.95

, , . . £9,95
£6.95

£9.95

, . . £9,95
£6.95

Clubs

The Dragon User discount club will save you money. Software com pa lies
interested in joining the scheme should write to: Dragon User, 12-13 Little
Newport Street, London WC2R 3LD.

ir<^

Dragon software
at a bargain

Discount software is now available through the medium of the Dragon User club - this month save
£1.50 on each of these games and adventures from Computer Rentals

THE Dmgon User Discount
Club is designed to save you
money. This month's special
offer, which is only open to
readers of this magazine, fea-
tures six software titles for the
Dragon 32 from Computer
Rentals, Each game has been
reduced to £5.45, down from
£6.95. To order your game(s)
simply cut out the coupon on
this page and send it, together
with a cheque or postal order,
to: Dragon User Discount
Club, 12-13 Little Newport
Street, London WC2R 3LD

Froglet

A busy main road and a fast
flowing river are the obstacles
you must overcome in guiding
the Froglet family back to the
safety of their home. The bet-
ter you get, the harder the
task.

Skier

Try your hand at skiing down a

giant slalom run, negotiating a
series of slalom gates and
avoiding the trees. The prog-
ram is a 3D perspective
simulation with five runs.

ffj^0f|trjl

Keys of Roth

An adventurer in search of the
keys, you must use your pow-
ers of deduction and deter-
mination to overcome the
mysteries of the caverns.
Ores, trolls and the giant Jub-
jaroo are out to stop you in
your quest.

Handicap Golf

Bogeys, birdies, an albatross
or par are alt possible on this;
one- or two-player 18-holo
handicap game. There are>
bunkers, lakes, trees, gorse
bushes, the rough and gu sting

winds to be taken into
account.

Laser Racer

Designed by Merlin software
for Computer Rentals, Laser
Racer puts you inside a huge
computer As the driver of a
space-age laser racer, it is up
to you to reach the computer's
central processor and destroy
it. Joystick or keyboard con-
trol

St George and the
Dragons

Slippery bridges and fire-
breathing Dragons impede
your progress as you attempt
to steer the hapless saint
across the screen to smite the
magic stone and lift the curse
from the castle and its
maidens. Musical interludes
accompany your failures.
Joystick or keyboard control.

i Dragon User Discount Club

P lease tick software requi red Price C 5.45 each

Laser Raoer

a |

St Gsoi ge and (he Of agon

□ 1

Shier

a 1

Keys ot Rom

a 1

Frog fel

z

1 Handicap Gon

a

1 e rrcl ose a c heque/po ram Ittanee tort...

Nam*

All ctaques,'PQs to be made payable lo Dragon Usar

Please cut <ju< ar>d sand this form to; Dragon User, Discount Club,

12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R3LD

12 Dragon User September 1984

FACTS, FOLKS

During the last few years we have produced or licenced lots of software for the 6309
microprocessor. Most of the software has been advertised or reviewed at one time or
another, but never all together — there was too much to say about each product. This
month we are giving the "blurb" a rest and just printing a list of most of the software
available from Compusense. If you want further details, write to us direct.

DRAGON/TANDY Software

Cartridge

Disk

Tape

EDIT + (includes HI- RES)

34.50

24 00

n/a

HI- RES

25.30

m/a

n/a

DASM/DEMON

30.45

19.95

n/a

DASM

10.95

rt/a

n/a

DEMON

10.95

n/a

n/a

DECODE

18.95

12.00

n/a

DVNAFAST

29.95

29.95

n/a

DYNAMISE A

n/a

5.99

5.99

DYNAXREF

n/a

5.99

5.99

GRAPH DRAWER

n/a

n/a

19.95

DASM Source Programs — Prog

am + Source code for DASM.

Tape

Vol 1. Dissasembler

599

Vol 2, Game of life

5.99

Vol 3. Epson Scren Dump

5.99

Vol 4. Seikosha Screen Dump

5.99

All four Volumes

14.99

Boohs and extras

6809 Assembly Language — leven1ha< „.,... 13,20+ 1 SOpSp

Programming the 6009 — Zaks 12,50 + 1-30p&p

"Introducing Dragon m/c — Sinclair 7.95 + 0.50 p&p

Advanced Sound/graphics — Brain 5.95 + 0.50 p&p

'Dragon m/c — Jonss/Cowsill 6,95 + 0.50 p&p

'These books contain DASM/DEMON examples.

Monitor/Sound lead 4.31 indp&p

Dragon Dust Cover ... 2.99 indp&p

Dragon printer lead .,,,, 14.95 inclpAp

DRAGON Disk drives Enquire for prices

DASM/DEMON, EDIT + are available Irom larger branches.

Postage on above software — 50p per order,

TANDY COLOR versions are available — but enquire first plese!

FLEX/OS9 Disk Software

FLEX is available on a number of hardware systems including the DRAGON and TANDY
COLOR COMPUTER. All the software shown here is fully compatible with these
systems. More to follow soon!

Fie* Operating System, Ed/ Asm for DRAGON 86.25

Flex Advanced Programmers guide 1 1 50

TSC DEBUG package „.„.,.„.,...„...„. 74.75

TSGXBASC precompiler 51.75

TSCUlililies 74.75

TSC PASCAL 230.00

Super Sleuth Dissasembler 68xx/6502 + source.... ..... 97.75

Cross Assembly Macro SeK 51.75

6502 Simulator + source 97.95

6800 Translator + source...,,,,.,,.,. , ,, ,„. 97,95

Stnjmacs structured programming macros 40-25

DYNACALCFLEX ...'. ..........172.50

COBOL Compiler .'. 115.00

DYNAMITE 68xx dissasembler OS9 , 172-50

lnlol"C"' compiler, linker 431.25

(also available for IBM PC and UNIX based mini/mainframes}

Lucidata Pascal... 103.50

LucidataXrel.. rii 11.50

LucidataCopycalCP/M copy rou lines 28.75

Stylo/mail/Spell (DRAGON only!) .172,50

DYNAF0RM 57,45

DYNASPELL spelling checker ........ .. 68-95

DYNASOFTPASCAt* runtime source 103.44

DYMASOFT'C" compiler 68.94

WmdrushXMACE 55.20

Windrush'C" Compter + link loader. ,„,.„. .,.,.., 189-75

Flex Operating System 40.25

TSC Editor + Assembler ,„.„,,-. -.- 51.75

TSC XBASIC interpreter....... ■«- 105.80

TSC Sort/merge package ......r.-. 74.75

TSC Text Processor 74.75

TSC Relocating Assembler/link loader 172 50

Super Sleuth DissasemblerBOSx/ZSO + source 97.75

6805 Simulators source , 97.75

6502 Translator + source.. .. ., 97.95

6309 PIC/ PI D translator 97.95

DYNACALC (DRAGON FLEX — Soon .enquire?) 90 00

TSC 68000 Cross assembler ,.♦.. 287.50

DYNAMITE 68xx dissasembler , 103.50

ABASIC Compiler , 86.25

Lucidata Include 11-50

Lucidata Profiler 11-50

Stylograph w/p . - 295.00

DYNASTAR word processor..... 57.45

DYNASTAR/DYNAFORM-. - 114.B9

DYNASOFT PASCAL 68 94

KBASIC Compiler , 218.50

WindmsriMACE ^3-70

WindrushPL9 ........112-70

# tV ir Some of the software above is also available for OSS — enquire! 6 * &

Sales and demonstrations by appointment.

LIMITED

286D GREEN LANES, PALMERS GREEN, LQNDQN N1 35XA
Telephone: 01-882 0681/6936, Telex: 8813271 GECOMS G

*

Prices ere subject to change without notice.

September 1984 Dragon User 13

No smoking
on tubeway

John Scriven surveys the software scene

AT THIS time of the year many people go
through a very strange personality change.
Instead of getting up at the usual time and
going to work in a normal fashion, they
suddenly jet off to foreign parts, leap
around in a most undignified manner, get
stung by jelly fish, stand on sea urchins,
eat food thai gives them Delhi Belly or
Montezuma's Revenge, and come back
suffering from mild sunstroke — all in the
name of "enjoying the holidays". It's hard-
ly a good time for slaving away over a hot
computer — in fact, the weather last
summer was one reason given for Dragon
Data's early problems. Software writers
have obviously been working at top speed
to put their products on the market before
they too, climb into their cars and zoom off
for a week at Butlins or wherever it is they
90.

Strident sounds

There is therefore a great number of
programs out at this time of the year,
although I would think it unlikely that many
will be sold before September is through.
There are some new names in this
month's collection, which is encouraging,
and some new ideas in the programs
themselves, which makes my task more
interesting, Something tells me, however,
that I should invest in a set of ear plugs if
the accompanying sound tracks become
more strident.

The last thing Mission XK1 from J
Morrison Micros suffers from is a quiet
opening. As the title pages roll, the familiar
strains of "Thus Spake Zarathuslra" (rec-
ognisable to fans of 2001 AD and certain
razor adverts) ring out in multi-part har-
mony. A mother ship appears at the top of
the screen, and you steer your tiny craft
from this down to a landing pad on the
surface of the planet Zyphon, Progress is
hampered by chunks of what was once the
moon of Zyphon circling the planet,
although it is possible to blast them out of
the way with a laser cannon.

It you survive the landing, much-needed
fuel is drawn up from the planet and you
have now to transfer it safely to the mother
ship, once again avoiding the pieces of
rock.

The game is well-written, and appears
quite spectacular the first few times it is
played. I found that the music became
irritating after this, and if wasn't possible to
turn it off. {Lowering the volume on the TV
naturally kills the more useful sound
effects as well.} The game itseif does not
seem to progress anywhere, and although
the asteroid belt becomes thicker as you

play on, there are no continuing parts to
play. I would agree that there are many
other programs that are no more compli-
cated and are very popular, but for me I'm
afraid there was no magic If, however, you
want a thrilling rendition of space music,
I'm sure Richard Strauss himself would
approve of the sound track.

Beam Rider from Microdeal is yet
another US import that originates from
Spectral Associates. The screen is co-
vered by more than a hundred little blocks
arranged in rows. Steering a "beamer",
you destroy the blocks by running over
them. The speed at which you move is
determined by whether there are any
blocks in the direction in which you are
moving. If there are, a beam shoots out
and pulls you towards the block. Nothing
could be that simple, however, and there
are odd little problems like Spinners and
Chasers that follow you around, just wait-
ing till your attention slips.

If you manage to clear a screen before
losing three men, another screen appears
with the blocks arranged differently. The
scoring system and rules for play are a
little complicated, but soon acquired, and
although the graphics are rather abstract,
the game is fairly addictive. If you like
Gridrunner, then this will certainly appeal
to you, and is worth looking at.

A couple of months back I looked at the
first of the Horace series of software to
appear on the Dragon, Hungry Horace.
This month ! received the latest translation
from a Spectrum original, Horace Goes
Skiing from Melbourne House.

Kamikazi attack

in this program, the object is to steer
Horace (with £40 in his pockets) across a
busy road to a ski shop where he can hire
his equipment, then back through the
traffic to the other side before he can start
out on the slope The road is fairly quiet at
the start, but soon reaches rush hour
condition, and it's easy to end up on the
wrong side of a juggernaut or one of the
kamikazi motorcyclists that appears from
out of nowhere, if this happens, you will
have to pay out £10 for the ambulance,
leaving you with less for ski hire.

Assuming that you manage to acquire
your skis and return to the top of the
screen, you can now help Horace to speed
down the Hannekon slalom course. Trees
are an obvious hazard to avoid if you value
your skis, and there are the slalom poles to
Steer between if you want to gain points.
The display scrolls up, as Horace remains
in the centre of the screen, and control is

.

.u.. ■

■i.. "

tiiiiiJiHiiiJ
•£iii n lima

Synthesised sounds accompany you on your flight

& i£ts

=5t ""kXir*

t&

Undaunted, Horace hops across the juggernaut laden i

1 4 Dragon User September 1964

UmiM i

*.j

if in T vbeway Army

!?

*

fa n r oad in search of skis

achieved by either joystick or keyboard.

If you complete the course, there is
another piste to follow — but of course, it
has to be on the opposite side of yet
another busy road. As you reach higher
levels, it's harder keeping a true course,
and there are even rnoguts — those
mounds of snow caused by everyone
following the same track on their parallel
turns. Hit one of these awkwardly and the
trees leap out to greet you I

Happy Horace

Horace games seem to translate well for
the Dragon, and this is no exception
Presumably, we shall soon see Horace
versus the Spiders on our screens as well.
Hungry Horace is a sort of up-market
Pacman, and in some ways, Horace Goes
Skiing is reminiscent of Frogger, although
the graphics are much better Not quite as
much fun as Hungry Horace, but better
than average.

Beau Jolly, now marketing Imagines
existing stock, has an offering entitled
Cosmic Cruiser which promises great
things as it loads, A highly detailed graphic
design of an astronaut appears as the
main program enters the machine. The
cassette insert is also dripping with in-
formation about the wonderful facilities
that Imagine offer, sorry, used to offer their
programmers, and goes into more detail
about the writer than I've seen before,
complete with life history and trendy photo-
graph.

After this rapturous introduction, what of
the product itself? The theme is fairly
original — you are in charge of rescuing
crewmen from a space station at the top of
the screen and have to transport them to
the safety of your cosmic cruiser The
graphics are quite detailed and the charac-
ters are reasonably life-like. All the while,
the space station rotates at the top, occa-
sionally revealing doors that can be shot
open with a laser cannon from the base of
the screen. As the spacemen appear, they
can be collected and guided to safety.
. You can choose to use either the
keyboard or joysticks to control the main
spaceman, or "hero" as he is called in the
notes, and his movement is slow and
ponderous, as if there really is iow gravity.
If you choose joysticks you will find that
you have to use them upside down. If you
use normal sticks there is no problem, but
if you have the Spectra video type, you will
have a little difficulty.

My first impressions were of irritation, as
the instructions are rather long-winded , but
once you grasp the general idea, the game
improves considerably and is quite lively
when the aliens start to appear. I still don't
feel it lives up to the impressions on the
cassette insert, although the screen shots
are a good idea. With clearer instructions,
the program would be worth a closer look.

As usual, Microdeal has produced even
more titles this month, Mr Dfg shows
influences from several other games, com-
bined in a new format, The screen shows a
tunnel underground, viewed from the side.
Buried in the earth are various unlikely
objects, including cherries and apples. The
cherries are what Mr Dig is after, and the

apples can be pushed along to squash
anything in their path. Just to annoy you,
there are several Meanies who are out to
spoil your fun You can run from them, fire
a Power Orb in their general direction, or
use the ultimate deterrent — drop an apple
on their heads.

There are a few other diversions, such
as Letter Monsters who enable you to
increase the number of your spare men,
and the odd diamond that grows in the
middle of the apples. This is clearly de-
signed for quiet, non-aggressive children
of less that 1 0, who will doubtless turn their
noses up at it, while their parents love it. At
sometimes it resembles Pacman with you
digging your own maze, and at others, a
sort of fruity version of Pengon. Not a
game to get too ecstatic about, but well
worth the standard £8.

A game that has given me a lot of
pleasure this month is Touchstone, again
from Microdeal. This is a graphic adven-
ture for one or two players, and involves
finding your way along a sideways scroll-
ing maze collecting various treasures
along the way. The adventure is presum-
ably set in a pyramid as the documentation
mentions Ankhs and the god Ra,

There are several unpleasant creatures
that inhabit the maze, such as snakes,
spiders and butterflies, but the fire button
sends a chilling glance from your eyes
(thanks to Ra) to destroy them Some
locations are friendlier than others, such
as Zoom Chambers that take you across
parts of the maze. Some have rather weird
names, like the infamous Poof Chamber,
however modesty prevents me from mak-
ing any comments about this!

I enjoyed this game a lot, and would
recommend it to anyone who likes adven-
tures but finds text versions rather heavy
going, You need arcade fingers as well as
Clear thinking to be successful. As you
dash through the tunnels pursued by evil
monsters, this program may make you feel
like Indiana Jones, which makes me won-
der when someone will produce a Dragon
game based on Raiders of the Lost Ark or
The Temple of Doom,

Doom laden

Another adventure that uses graphics,
although not in the same way, is Castle of
Doom from Paramount Software. This is
basically a text adventure that uses
graphics to show a 3-D view of the
location, usually a conridor with doors on
either side and occasional objects such as
chairs, tables and windows. In this adven-
ture, you are the "chosen one'' who has
the mission of finding the dreaded Count
Doom and destroying him There is less
tongue-in-cheek amusement than in
Richard Shepherds Transylvanian Tower,
and until you have the knack, the first
stage is difficult to leave. The vampire's
house consists of 27 locations, and the
aim is to leave this and reach Doom Town.
This has 36 locations, and is complicated
by Castle Doom itself, with a further 27
rooms.

Instructions follow the usual Verb- Noun
format of most adventure programs, such
as "Take garlic" or "Open door", and ►

September 1984 Dragon User 15

■4 there is the useful addition of command
"voc", which gives you a list of sound
clues, so it is important to use the com-
mand "listen" when you think something
may be heard. As usual, "inventory" gives
you a list of the things you are carrying at
any particular time, "score" tells you how
you are doing, and "look" redraws the
location so you can see where you are,

In some adventure games, once you
have solved the mystery, there is little
point in replaying the adventure. In this
game, the objects that can assist you are
scattered throughout the system of loca-
tions. This gives it a certain edge over
predictable adventure games, although it
is lacking in surprises and much humour, If
you are a serious adventure freak, then
you may like this program, although I
found it rather dry after other adventures.

Damsel in distress

What s wrapped in clingfilm and swings
from Ihe bells of Paris? It pains me to tell
you that the answer is "The lunchpack of
Notre Dame", If you have the kindness to
forgive me that apology for a joke, and
have had your eyes open in arcades
recently, you will have noticed that for
some reason, the exploits of a crippled
Frenchman two centuries ago have proved
fascinating !o many people, Charles
Laughton starred in a cult movie many
years ago, and the story found its way lo
the arcades about a year back. Hunchback
is a popular game in which you take on the
role of the unfortunate bell -keeper as he
swings his way far above the roof-tops of
Paris attempting to rescue his doomed
love, Esmeralda.

This game is brought to you by two firms
this month. Ocean Software with Hunch
back and Cable Software with Quasi-
modo. After spending several fruitless
hours with each, the conclusion I've come
to is thai both are worthy of consideration
as a reasonable version of a difficult
arcade game. They both have their good
points, as well as their more irritating
features, and I can't honestly say that one
is better than the other.

I found Hunchback closer to the arcade
game and with rather more detail in the
graphics, but Quasimodo is easier to play
in the early stages I would have thought a
voice moaning "The bells! The bells!
would have provided a good soundtrack,
but Hunchback has musical touches —
something like the Teddy Bears' Picnic
has to be borne bravely each time you
play, and a sort of soft, squelching sound
emanates from the TV speaker as the
hunchback lurches across the screen,

For what it's worth, this title caused me
more frustration as I failed to climb over
the towers of Notre Dame for the
umpteenth time, but the frantic movements
as I struggled to avoid the arrows in
Quasimodo totally destroyed my favourite
S peel ra vision joystick, which wasn t up to
the pounding involved in the game,

The object in both programs is to over-
come apparently insurmountable objects
such as battlements and moats to reach
Esmeralda and take her to safety. On the
way, you may encounter such problems as

floating islands, flaming arrows, and so on,
each involving its own special means of
escape, If you have extreme patience
either of these games is likely to give you a
tot of fun as well as a pile of broken
joysticks,

Horace Goes Skiing Melbourne House
£595 Castle Yard House

Castie Yard
Richmond TWtOfiTF

Mission XK1
£6,&5

Beam Rider
Mr Dig
Touchstone
Crabber
£o

Cosmic Cruiser
E5.S0

Castle of Doom

£6,50

Hunchback
£6.90

Superbowl
Quasimodo

£6-95 (cassette)
£9.95 (disk)

J Morrison Micros
2 Glensdale Street
Leeds LS9 SJJ

Microdeaf

41 Truro Rd

St Austell

Cornwall

Beau Jolly

1 9a New Broadway

Ealing, London W5

Paramount

67 Bishopton Lane

Stockton-on-Tees

Cleveland TS1&1PU

Ocean Software
Ocean House
6 Central Street
Manchester M2 5NS

Cable Software
PSL Marketing
52 Limbuny Road
Luton
BedsLU3 2PL

Bug Oivef
£1.9S

Mission Moon base

£6.99

Tubeway Army
£7 50

HI Res
£3,95

Masterironic
40 George Street
London W1

Phoenix Software
1 16 Marsh Road
Pinner
Middlesex

Crystal Computing
T25Stned ley Road
Cheetham Hill
Manchester M8 7RS

Oron Software
64 Pnnce Street
Rochdale
Lanes

A game from Microdeal that has some
quite original touches is Grabber. This is a
maze pursuit with a difference — there are
two mazes on screen at all times, and you
appear as a figure on one maze. Pressing
the fire button on the joystick causes you

to swop between them. The object is to
grab treasures, shown on each maze, and
transport them to the centre while avoiding
monsters who pursue you, If they are
uncomfortably close, you can beam across
to the other maze and continue the game
there.

Unlike Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, who
always avoided beaming down in the
middle ot a piece of furniture, you can find
yourself on top of a monster in the parallel
maze which tends to prove rather lethal.
Although this is hardly more than a double
version of Pacman complete with a type of
power pill, it has the makings of an
addictive game — it is quite easy to begin,
but rapidfy becomes a considerable chal-
lenge to remain alive on both screens,

Mastertronic has made the headlines
recently, selling inexpensive software,
{price £1 99 each) and Bug Diver is the
first Dragon program from its 1 99 series In
this game you dive from a little boat that
speeds across the top of the screen. At the
bottom you have the task of collecting
bugs and swimming with them to the boat,
which will gain you points. Fish swimming
from both sides with their mouths open try
to gulp at you if you get within their range .
Although the game is rather ordinary,
with a few mistakes on the packaging —
for example, "enter LOAD" rather than
CLGAD — Mastertronic is to be com-
mended in bringing prices down to pocket
money rather than birthday present level.
Cable Software, who are responsible for
some of the pile of shattered joysticks
outside Noire Dame cathedral, have cros-
sed the Atlantic this month to bring us the
first version of American football for the
Dragon, In Superbowl. which is apparent-
ly endorsed by the newly-formed Luton
team, the Flyers, you control someone '
called Floyd, seen from above as he
hurtles up the screen. The teams involved
are the Washington Redskins and the
Dallas Cowboys, and the object is to steer
Floyd round the opposing team as the
screen scrolls downwards.

Fancy footwork

It seems quite difficuft to swerve past the
padded figures as they hurl you to the
ground once more, and the play never
seems to be reversed, but maybe things
change if you can ever get near the posts
at the other end of the field. This is not a
game thai had much appeal to me. but
with Channel Four coverage, and sixty
teams being formed into a league, this is
bound to find some ardent fans before
long.

Mission Moonbase is another twin cas-
sette game from Phoenix Software, and
follows on from Death Mines of Strus and
The Emperor Must Die. One cassette
contains the action game, where you have
to control a maniac buggy across a rough
surface while avoiding Slran raiders that
buzz along above you. These can be
removed by a double firing laser, but
potholes must be leapt to stay in the game.

Occasionally you receive progress re-
ports on the screen, and if you reach the
base, you will be given the code necessary
for the second, adventure part of the

16 Dragon User September 1984

Swinging over the burning pits to the rescue in Hunchback

game. There is no way you can dive into
this section without the code, but sufferers
from arthritis and joystick wigglers cramp
may find benefit in the fact that Phoenix
supply an emergency phone number
where you can obtain the code in times of
desperation.

Gary Nu man's original group of robotic
musicians went by the name of Tubeway
Army, but in Dragon circles, this is the
name given to a game from Crystal Com-
puting. On loading, it appears to be yet

another version of Scramble, It is, howev-
er one of the best versions, and seems to
have all the features of the arcade game.

Initially, you fly your craft across a
sideways scrolling landscape avoiding
rockets whife bombing fuel dumps As you
reach the cave system, steering becomes
more critical, and you soon have to face
swarms of the enemy coming towards you.
If you steer past these and negotiate the
Wall and the final narrow tunnel, you are
faced with destroying the base before

starting again. There is some synthesised
speech to accompany you on your journey
and if you don't yet have a version of

Scramble, Tubeway Army is to be recom-
mended.

Design utility

The ffnal program I've looked at is a
graphics design utility from Oron Software
called HiRes. Although the Dragon has a
good set of Basic commands, it is easier to
use a program like this to produce good
drawings and these can then be used in
your own programs More useful are prob-
ably those machine-code utilities that en-
able you to use new graphics keywords in
Basic, but this sort of program is a good
start. Dragon Data produced a similar
program back in 1982, but joystick control
was very difficult. HiRes is a lot easier Jo
use and can produce boxes, circles, bor-
ders and repeated shapes over the
screen The price is reasonable at £3 95,
If f can drag myself away from the
keyboard this month, I might even join the
crowds on their way to the sun. As I lie on
some distant shore I shall contemplate a
world without aliens, buzzards, gorillas
Cuthbert, Horace and ail their electronic
friends. After a few months of varied
software in large quantities, it is noticeable
that the supply is starting to dry up. Qnu
hopes that this is not a pattern for the
future, and that users will not be starved of
Dragon fodder when they return to their
micros. ■

OR TANDY
COLOUR

h ^Lj

.&*

N.B This |OvF5Nc*t is oF1 he switching
type and will work with mosl games

©YSTICK

If you're a real arcade professional then Microdears
latest addition to the range is for you. We've taker
the world's top selling Joystick and converted it to
work with your Dragon 32 or Tandy Colour Computer.
The circuit board inside will even give you RAPID FIRE.
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4T Truro Rd T St. Austell Cornwall PL25 5JE
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MICRODEAL
DISTRIBUTION
0726*3456

September 1 9B4 Dragon User M

Daisy wheel or

dot-matrix?

lolo ap Gwynn compares the Shinwa CPdO printer with the Smith-Corona TP-1

ONE OF THE ways in which the Dragon
can be very useful is as a word processor

— probably (he only serious use to which
many owners will ever put their machine-
Many suitable packages have appeared
on the market for this purpose; the Dragon
Super Writer 2 probably being one of the
most versatile, and the only one which can
be considered for serious use on the 32
because it overcomes the machine's in-
herently slow keyboard response as well
as giving an auto- re peat facility.

To complement word processing pack-
ages a good printer is needed in order to
produce hard copies of your works of
literary genius! A choice exists between
dot-matrix machines, which have a large
choice of characters and print sizes as well
as the possibility of printing graphics
screen clumps, but whose print quality is
not quite up to "letter
quality'' standards as
is produced by an
electric typewriter,
and a "daisywheel"
printer, Daisywheel
printers do not have
the same range of
readily available
character sizes as a
dot-matrix printer,
but produce print of
"letter quality" stan-
dard and the print-
wheel itself can be
changed for a dif-
ferent font should
this be required. In
this article I will take
a look at two printers
priced at about £250
each: the Shinwa
CP80, a dot-matrix
printer capable of
almost letter quality'

tor feed is an optional extra), has a limited
character set, and only prints at a speed of
12CPS, The same full A4 page of text

takes about 7 minutes to be printed on this
machine, I will now examine these
machines in more detail,

First the Shinwa CP80, This is slightly
more expensive than the Seikosha, but it
does have features which are essential for
use with any word processing package,
such as the ability to use ordinary paper in
friction feed mode as well as the usual
perforated printer paper in the tractor
mode. This printer is different from many
other dot-matrix machines in that its pins
are of square rather than round section.
This means that the letters are printed
thicker than with other printers giving an
effect which is most acceptable and is
definitely of "almost letter quality ".

From left to right, the Smith-Corona TP-1 and the Shinwa CP80 printers

print and the Smith-
Corona TP-1 , a daisywheel printer.

Where the Shinwa, as any dot-matrix
printer, scores over the Smith-Corona is in
its versatility and speed, In standard speci-
fication the Shinwa can handle both tractor
(holes in the edges) paper and friction feed
(like an ordinary typewriter); a full range of
dot-matrix characters including the possi-
bility of defining your own, provided you
are good at machine code programming,
as well as having graphics dumps, and a
printing speed of 80CPS. This speed
means it will print a full A4 page of text in
about 90 seconds. The daisywheel on the
otherhand, whife giving an excellent print
| quality, can only ha ndle friction feed (trac-

18 Dragon User September 1 9S4

Examples of its character print set are
given in figure 1, printed in some of the
various print sizes and fonts available. It is
obvious from examining this list that this
printer can cope with all the possible
needs of a word processor and more. The
character set available includes normal
and italic characters as well as a set of
semi-graphic characters and a set of play-
ing card symbols, Its printing speed of 80
CPS or 640 dots'line/second is more than
adequate. The normal line width maximum
is 640 dots but in the compressed mode it
will give 1 ,280 dots over the 190mm width
of the line, The maximum width of paper
which can be used is 254mm or 10 inches
Line spacing is normally set at Ve of an

inch, but is software switchable to any
setting in increments of either V?a of an
inch or Vaie. It is also capable of producing
three carbon copies when printing.

The standard interface is the Centronics
parallel which can be linked directly to the
Dragon — using it with the Dragon pre-
sented no problems whatsoever, (For
owners of other micros an RS232 serial
interface is available as an optional extra,)
A cartridge containing a carbon ribbon is
supplied with the machine and this lasts a
surprisingly long time. Replacements cost
about £5, but I am sure an enterprising
owner could easily reload the cartridge as
it is not sealed. Print head life is quoted as
30 million characters. I find trying to
estimate what this means in practical
terms rather difficult, but get the feeling it
will take me a long time to reach it —
at least I hope that is
the case!

The operation
manual supplied with
the printer is reason-
ably well written,
although some parts
have suffered some-
what in translation
from the original
Japanese. Some in-
formation for
machine code use
would however have
been useful at times.
It took me a while to
sort out how to get
the bit image mode
to work properly.
Reference to an
Epson manual help-
ed as the commands
and control codes
seem to be similar
to those used in that machine. Need-
less to say it copes well with the list-
ing of programs, the option of having
the zero with or without a line through it
being available according to the user's
choice. Even without this, there is a notice-
able difference between the zero and the
"O". It also has available the M £" at ASCII
129 without the loss of the hash, as
happens on a substantial number of other
printers.

The other use to which the printer can
be put is to produce a hard copy of the
graphics screen, be they graphs or other
drawings. The CPS0 allows for. the printing
of graphics by means of its "Bit Image
Mode" of operation. This allows the print-

ing of rows of eight pixels at a time from
the graphics screen. This can be done
using a Basic program, but a single print ot
the screen would take 20 minutes or
longer.

For an immediate print at a reasonable
speed of about 20 seconds one needs to
resort to the use of machine code. The
main listing shows a Basic program to load
a machine code routine to do just this. Line
10 sets the space in the memory where
the routine is to be stored. Line 20 defines
the memory position where the routine is to
start. This is higher than the position
specified in line 10 because the memory
reserved below it will be used to store
values ready for printing. Lines 30 to 130
read in the hexadecimal values given in
the data statements on lines 150 to 250.
Finally lines 1120 to 1160 provide a test
printing circle on the graphics screen
which is printed on calling the machine
code routine in line 1 1 70.

Spaces

The routine as written wilf give a double-
size printing of the graphics screen which
measures about 160 by 115mm This is
achieved by inserting a space in between
each pixel printed An example of the
resultant print is shown in figure 2. Howev-
er, should the need arise for a print without
the inserted spaces, the short second
program should be run which modifies
the original routine to eliminate the
space insertion procedure. Provided the
listing is copied in carefully then no
difficulty should be experienced in using
this program. However, should anyone
require a cassette of this program in
both Basic and machine code loading I
would only be too glad to let them have a
copy for £3.50. (Write to lap Gwynn, Plas
Trefiys, Llangwyryfon, Aberystwyth,)

How different the daisywheel printer is to
use. As with many such machines the
TP-1 has only a limited printing speed.
However, if one needs to produce high
quality typed work then such a printer is
essential. Whereas the dot-matrix printer
responds to the whole 256 ASCII charac-
ter set and control codes, the daisywheel
is limited lo 100. The control codes it recog-
nises are those for backspace, tab, linefeed,
formfeed, carrier return, left and right
margin set, tab clear, margin release and
automatic underlining. The main advan-
tage of this is that one does not get

T M/C PROGRAM TO DUMP GRAPHICS PAGES 1 TO 4
'FROM A DRAGON 32 ONTO A
'SHINWA CPSO PRINTER
B *C Lap Gwynn 12/33

10 ClEAPZOQ, fcH^CFF

20 X~fcH7£00

30 READ x*

40 IF X>32767 OR X<&H7CFF THEM STOP

30 IE K*«*ZZ*TH£M SO

60 POKE X,VAL( "8fH"+X*>

70 X^X+l;GOTO 30

SO Y-&H7F00

90 READ X*

100 IF X>32767 OR X<kH7CFF THEM STOP

HO IF Xta'ZI" THEN 140

SZO POKE Y,VftLf't(H't»(fl

130 V=Y+l;GOTO 90

140 EDTOUZO

130 DATA34 3 36,S£, ID, EO» 10 , SE f 7I>, 00, 10, BF T 7F , E3 ,

1 60 DAT A7P , 00 , F 7 , 7F , El , A6 , 54 1 43 1 BD , ?E , 26 , ED , SO ,

170 DATA0B,EO,7A,7F t El,P6, 7F , E 1 , CI , 00, 26 , E5, 34 ,

lEtg DATAOO t 10,EF F 7F,E3,BD,7F p 4F I 30,e9 N ie,Oi,SC,

190 BATAZ2 t e£, 13, BD, BO, OF , St, 41 , SO, ©O, OF , B6, 07

200 DATAOF,B6,4B, BD, BO, OF , 36 , SO , BD, BO, OF, B6 , 1

210 DATASF, 46,56, 56,4**56,36, 46, 36, 56,46, 36, E7,

220 DATAE3,5F,46,56,36,4fi,S6,56,-16 J S6.36,46,56 1

230 DATA12, 1 2 , BD, 7F, OO, C6 . CO , F7 , 7F, El , A6, M , 12

240 DATAOF , 31 , A© , 01 , 7A , 7F , E 1 , F6 , 7F , E 1 „ C 1 , 00, 26 ,

230 DATAZZ

U20 PW0DE4, irSCREENl, 1 :PCLS1

1130 COLORO

1140 LINE (0,0J -(2S5, 191) , PSET , B

1150 CIRCLE! 127, 93J , SO

I160 F0RI-1T0 SOOOJNEXT 1170 EXEC&H7E00

BD, 7F,
OF , E6 ,
OD,BD,
1 E , 00 ,
FD,©0,
BD, SO,
fii4, 7C,
F7.7F,

bd, eo,

00, Co,
OO, BD,
SOjOF,
26, CO,
OF, 66,
OF, 39,
7F,E4,
E2 , B6 ,
OF , S6 ,
OD , BD ,

CO, IO,©E

eo,op,30

10, SE, 7D
33,36,39
1E,BD,30
12, 12,12
JtO,BE,7F
7F,E2 r 3?
00, BD, SO
90, OF, 39

Listing J ; Basse program to load a machine code
involved in all the other softwares witch-
able options available on the dot-matrix.

For straightforward word-processed out-
put they are not normally needed (the full
character set is seen in figure 3), Writing in
Welsh (a must for the Dragon!) does
however cause problems because the
standard character set does not include a
circumflex (ASCII 94) which is needed
quite often. Of greater interest to those
wishing to produce program listings is that
it does not have a "hash' character and,
more seriously, the zero is identical to the
letter "0 **. This could lead to some difficul-
ty In following Basic listings printed on this
machine.

The instruction booklet is very clearly
written, and it is very easy to unpack the
machine and connect it to the Dragon with
a standard Centronics 36 pin D connector
and cable (not supplied). An RS232 serial
interface is also available tor it as an
optional extra, and will accept data at a

routine
rate of anything from 50 to 1 9,200 baud.
The ribbon supplied is of the long life,
multi strike, mylar film type which gives
excellent print clarity. Changing the ribbon
cartridge is very easy, but during normal
use would not seem to be necessary very
often. Changing the printwheel is also
easily done. Several different types of
typestyle wheels are available with a
choice of both 10 and 12 pitch (characters
per inch).

In construction this printer resembles a
typewriter without a keyboard, seems to be
very solidly made and is quite heavy (9.4
Kg), In operation it sounds very much like
a typewriter. The roller width is 13 inches,
which is considerably more than the Shin-
wa, and it is possible to set the line
advance manually to 6, 4.5 or 3 lines per
inch. Fine adjustment of the print position
can also be made so that printing on to
forms and so on is possible. The impress-
ion made by the printwheel characters can

Full character set -for Shinwa CF-SO

NORMAL SIZE AND EMPHASIS:

i ii

H*%tc' f J #+, -. /01234567S9: S < =>?@ABCDEF6HI JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZC \ ] rt _ 'abedef gh i j K 1 m
nopqrstuvwxyzf !)£"' '§„ Ht u I -- H- /*##*** (>*+,- . /0123456789i it = ??t?ftBCDEFGfiIJKL
rttVOPQASTUVliXYZf \j« _' abedef ghij ft Imrtopgrs tuiswx yz C / J>~ .•■■■■I I I l||AV«f*+

Cnipressed nam I Piphasi5
Normal emphasised

1 •=* rm (zj Hi sl S- i S

Normal double strike
NORMAL plus »lji-e wk=-i fl t

NORMAL plus .uif^^^t

September 1984 Dragon User 19

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of information on
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•Elmer's Arcade — enjoy old-fashioned arcade
style games on your computer
•The Basic Beat — learn everything you need

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•The Educated Guest — discover how to use
your computer as a teaching tool
•Doctor ASCII — get answers to your

technical questions
•Graphically Speaking — create eye-catching
designs that add appeal to your programs
You also get a dozen easy-to- understand articles every
month. Games. . utilities. . . programming techniques. . ,
tutorials. . -graphics. . .education. . . hardware projects,
They'll help you expand what you cao do. And complete
program listings show you how to use what you learn.
That's not all, HOT CoCo saves you money too:
•Candid reviews help you make every
purchase a sound investment.
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•New-product announcements tell you what's
available before it reaches the stores.
With all this at your fingertips, your subscription
could pay for itself with one wise purchase.

And HOT CoCo is risk-free. Tf you don't like your
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\

V

* Otagon fa 41 TKguhTsd trodtmar k of Orag/m Data Ltd.

Yfcihl Help me improve my computing skills. Send me
12 issues of HOT CoCo for $44.97 (US). I understand
that with payment enclosed or credit card order I will
receive a FREE issue, making a total of 13 issues for
$44.97 (US).

Ge* a 13th issue FBEE when you enclose payment or
charge it on your Mastercard, Visa, or American Express.

□ CHECK/MO

DMC □ VISA D AE

CARD jff

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NAME

.EXP- DATE.

ADDRESS_

!

POSTCODE.

.COUNTRY,

HOT CoCo • 80 Pine Street • PtetwhorousJi, Nil 0345S • USA
73DFDU

20 Dragon User September 1 984

10 'CONVERSION PROGRAM TO SMALLER SIZE

20 "SCREEN DUMP PRINT

30 *c I . ap Gwynn 12/83

40 FQRI=kH7ElC TO UH7EIE

50 POKE I,&H12

60 NEXT

70 FORI=fcH7E22 TO &H7E26

80 POKE I,fcH12

90 NEXT

100 FDRJ>&H?E41 TO &H7E43

110 POKE I,&cH12

120 NEXT

130 POKEkH7FlA,&HCO

140 POKEkH7FlF,&HG0

Listing 2: modification of the origins! routine

Figure 2: graphics screen

Full character set for Smith- Corona TF-1

!"£$£&' ()»+,-./0123456789:; - ?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[ ]_abcdefghi jk

Imno pq r s t u vwxy z

Figure 3r full character set tor the Corona TP- 1

^ be contra I led manually to five different
settings. This enables sufficient pressure
lo be exerted for producing several carbon
copies or for clear typing on to duplicator
skins. The specification of this printer
would seem to be up to the requirements
of a business user and is very well made, if
a little noisy.
Deciding which of these two printers to

da.i$ywh&$l printer

use depends very much on the use to
which they are to be put. Straightforward
word processing and nothing else would
suggest the daisywheel if high quafity
printing is required. However, if any pro-
gram development work is done, rapid
printing of reasonable quality is needed; or
if graphics dumping is expected, then the
Shinwa would cope adequately.

If the physical sire of the printer is a

consideration then the Smith-Corona TP-1
(made in the United States) is about four
times the size of the Shinwa {made in
Japan}. Both machines have been
designed to do different jobs, both do them
well and bring quality printers down lo a
price many home micro owners would be
prepared to consider. ■

• i

• i I -

»•*•***• • •••■• ■

i|i *•
• • ■ • •••

• » * -

Statacom gives you the Drive

\for your Dragon

dotofox

STATACOM DISTRIBUTION LTD,
15-17 CHE AM ROAD, SUTTON,
SURREY 3M113W 01-6612266

Statacom Distribution Ltd, are main
distributors for Datafax Disk Drives in

the U.K.

Whatever your needs . . . talk to us.

An amazing range of top quality drives,

supplied with leads, cables and utility

disks from a single 100* (200K fiipable

disk) with or without power supply

unit, or Delta Controller,

right through to a dual

400K, double sided unit

(800K double density) with

power supply unit.

We also distribute

a complete range

of 5W disk drives.

All finished In an

attractive metal

case.

September 1994 Dragon User 21

Designed and produced by qualified professional educationalists

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

Physics (O level CSE Revision)
Biology (O level/ CSE Revision)
Computer Studies (O level. CSE)
Maths (O level Revision)
Maths (CSE Revision)
Science (Revision 12.14 years)

Maths (Revision 12/14 years)
English (Revision 12/14 years)
Reasoning (11+ Revision)
English Practice {6/1 1 years)
Mathematics Practice (0/1 1 years)
Arithmetic Practice (7/10 years)

Tables (Practice 7 11 years)

Spelling (Improver 9/99 years)
Knowledge Quiz (9/99 years)
Sports Quiz {9/99 years)
Typing (Improve your speed and
accuracy — timed tests in upper and
lowercase letters — 100% high res)

UNBEATABLE VALUE AT £4.95 EACH POST FREE

O LEVEL/CSE COMPUTER STUDIES

A set of four cassettes jam -packed with up to dale knowledge
covering the O level/CSE syllabuses. Full tutorial with
revision questions, Subject areas include:

Data Coding, Data Storage. Computer Arithmetic, Computer
Logic, Processing Information, Society and Computers,
Computer Structure. Backing Storage,

And much, much more.

Also suitable as a general introduction to the computing
world (Mums and Dads please note).

FANTASTIC VALUE AT E14.50 PER SET POST FREE.

PRO-FILE ©

The original and best cassette- basedliling system, Use your

Dragon as a data filing and retrieval system Hundreds of

uses throughout the home and small business — used by

doctors, dentists, larmers, etc,

Output to screen or printer.

56-page easy-to-use manual with full instructions.

"Profile does everything it claims and does it well {Which

Micro? November 1963)

"One of the best manuals of its type I have seen, ideal for the

novice" {PCW December 1983)

£5 less than our nearest rival,

£9.95 post free

MICRO DE-BUG CONSULTANCY

Dept U, 60 Sir Johns Rd, Selly Park
Birmingham B29 7ER. Tel: 021-472 7610

Also suitable for Tandy CoCo Computer.

*# IS VOUR DRAGON COMPUTER STARVED OF ADD-ON'S **

DEVELOFT1ENT POARD

PLUGS IMTD CARTRIDGE PORT. ALL INPUT/OUTPUT AND SUPPLY LINES AVAILABLE

AVAILABLE IN BOTH TIN AND SOLD CONTACT VERSIONS.

CAN BE USED TCI CONSTRUCT MOTHER &DARDS, EPROM PROGRAMMER

ADD ON RAH/ROM, INPUT /OUTPUT CONTROL, ETC....

PRICES : TIN CONTACT £5.75 INC VAT GOLD CONTACT £6.75 INC 'JAT

RB 27:

PLUGS

CONTROL PROGRAMME

! / PARALLEL INTERFACE

INTO CARTRIDGE PORT. NO EXTERNAL* POWER SUFFL Y REQUIRED,
IN EPROM, THIS ADDS TO THE BASIC COMMANDS BO
PEEKS AND POKES ARE NEEDED.
FULL. RS 232 COMMUNICATIONS
PRICE i £54. SO INC VAT

NO MESSY

I

TWO PARALLEL PORTS FOR PROCESS CONTROL, ETC.

EPROM PROGRAMMER

AVAILABLE IN KIT AND READY BUILT VERSIONS. WILL PROGRAMME.

2716, 251 1, 2733, 2732A, 2S32, 2764 EPfiOMS.

wREADV BUILT VERSION ALSO 27 128 AND INTELLIGENT F'RQGRAMH I NG .

PLUGS mm CARTRIDGE PORT. NO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY REPUIREB.

CONTROL PROGRAMME IN EPROM.

DEALER ENQUIRES INVITED.

PLEASE ADD 7-Op PJF OH BOARDS AND £1.00 DN ALL OTHER ITEMS.

** COMING SOON - MOTHER BOARD, SO COLUMN ADAPTOR, ETC, ETC,

STEVES ELECTRON I ES SUFFL V CO LTD,-
3^/45 CASTLE ARCADE, CARDIFF. CF 1 2BW.

Tel

"'■222} *1905/T7157B.

TEUE5

LECTFOniCS
UPPLV

CQ.LTD.

22 Dragon User September 1 984

CLOADM . . . and enter the world of
Shands software, the family entertainment
specialists. With 16 games under its belt,
including the best-selfing Pettigrews Diary,
Shards is the third largest producer of
Dragon software — following on the heels
of Salamander and Microdeal

The man behind the mysterious adven-
tures and founder of the Shards empire is
managing director, Stephen Maltz. His
interest in programming stems from a
competition he won in 1980 to rank 10
different business computers in order of
preference. Stephen won a Superbrain
micro, a case of champagne and the
opportunity to take time off from his job as
a Systems Analyst with Berger Paint to
write programs .

Early days

The Superbrain gave Stephen an appre-
ciation of micros in general and, in the
summer of 1982 he purchased a Dragon
32. His first programs appeared four
months later competing for his attention
with a blaring TV set and a noisy child.

In September of 1982 Stephen
approached Dragon Data at the Personal
Computer World exhibition and asked
them to look at two of his programs The
response was less than enthusiastic —
they lost his tapes twice. Nevertheless,
Stephen persevered with his programming
and the two games that Dragon Data
ignored later turned up on Shards' Fun and
Games tape — a compendium of 10
games for children's parties,

A two-centimetre high classified adver-
tisement in a well known popular computer
weekly magazine was the first indication
that Shards was on the go For almost a
year Stephen ran Shards as a mail order
venture In June of 1983 he gave up his job
to run Shards full-time, and took on two
staff to help with the packaging and
processing of the mail-order business.

One of the first successfully marketed
adventures that Shards had on the Dragon
was one that Stephen actually wrote on
the Superbrain and converted to the Dra-
gon — Empire. At the start of the game the
world is shown as consisting of 39 neutral
blocks to be divided up between the
player, the Dragon Empire and neutral
countries. Having allocated your forces the
idea is to strengthen your hold on the
world, forcing ihe opposing forces into
submission.

This was fo I Sowed shortly afterwards by
the release of Shards most popuiar adven-
ture, Pettigrews Diary, which has sold
upwards of 10,000 copies. The adventure
is in three chapters, each being an adven-

Shards'
diary

Gordon Ross tracks the

movements of adventurers

Shards software

ture in its own right and loading separately.
Clues gained in each section, however,
are essentia? to the following part. The first
part takes place in a burning farmhouse —
you have to extract vital clues to escape
the flames and continue to the second part
of the quest in London, collecting more
clues and outrunning a clock ticking away
at the top of the screen. Finally, the last
stage of the adventure takes you around
Europe, piecing various puzzles together
in order to successfully end the search.

The triumph of Pettigrew has led to a
series of new releases over the last year
and a half, including Puzzler (a computer
Simulated jigsaw puzzle); Mystery of the
Java Star (a four part 'educational''
adventure which has you searching for the
fabled ruby); North Sea Oil {a simulation
program that puts you in the role of
Offshore Installation Manager in charge of
a drilling rig); Shaper (a sound utility
program with accompanying 36 page
booklet) and most recently Operation Saf-
ras, the "prequel' to Pettigrews Diary,

The man at the top — Stephen Maltz

Most of these titles have had only limited
safes success, averaging approximately
2,000 sales per title Thus, the recent
collapse of Dragon Data couldn't have
happened at a worse time for Shards,
coming as it did when sales are traditional-
ly low over the whole spectrum of the
micro industry.

As a result, many shops are reducing
prices, notably Boots and Dixons, in a bid
to sell off unwanted stock. And, according
to Stephen, since Dragon's collapse
Shards has had trouble in gelling its new
stock into the hands of distributors and
retail outlets leading to a fall in revenue
and rise in the importance of mail order —
a situation that sees Shards going back to
its original position.

Operation Safras for example, has had
very disappointing sales, although
Stephen believes it to be a better adven-

qfgpf}

1 vtf«* re

ffiTVlC,

EMPIR

lure than Pettigrews Diary, "The public
believes that it is all plain sailing,' said
Stephen, "yet if they saw that companies
were in trouble they would support them."
Stephen said that recent titles that Shards
has been working on have had to be
shelved. This includes Time Travelling,
an adventure written entirely in graphics,
incorporating a sprite utility in the program,
and Shards major project for 1984 which
was to have been an educational adven-
ture, using music, graphics and coming
complete with books and instructions.

Shards has put its faith in the family
market. Stephen believes that it is prefer-
able to have several members of a family
or group playing and discussing an in-
teresting adventure, rather than seeing a
single person blasting away, zapping
aliens, and hogging the TV set. In addition,
says Stephen, families are less likely to
pirate tapes-
Hand in hand with this goes the belief
that more adults will join in the playing of
adventure-type games. "My philosophy is
that the market will change — we are
aiming at families and mature audiences
now, so that when the market does change
we will be in a strong position."

The ideal micro

At present Shards employs five full-time
staff and several part-time programmers,
"most of whom are 30 year old men with
two children" says Stephen, belying the
whizz kid image of the industry. It takes
about three months to write an adventure,
according to Stephen, who says that an
original idea and sound technique are the
two most important facets of an adventure.
Stephen, who does most of the program-
ming for the Dragon — his other staff
members are mostly concerned with writ-
ing adventures for the Commodore 64 and
Spectrum — claims that the Dragon "with
its amazingly powerful Basic is the ideal
micro for the programmer.' 1 Indeed it's only
lately that Shards has diversified away
from the Dragon, Stephen believing that
the road to the future depends on small
companies specialising in one area —
such as adventures, rather than producing
software for one particular micro.

Although the immediate outlook is
gloomy, this is not necessarily the end of
Shards associations with the Dragon. Re-
cently several people have approached
Shards with the possibility of deveioping
adventures on the Dragon. Come October
the time for decision making and the
launch of new products will begin. Only
then will a decision be taken on whether or
not to continue with the Dragon. ■

September 1984 Dragon User 23

In search
of excellence

Microdeaf consultant, Chas Robertson of NSC, brings his programming skiffs into your home with

his strategy game, Nimbo

if only l looked like Cuthbert — Chas Robertson's logo for Tom Mix Software

NIMBO IS A GAME of skill and strategy
which has you pitting your wits against the
Dragon in order to see who is forced to
take the last square from the board. Full
instructions are contained in the program,
which was written by Chas Robertson of
Northern Software Consultants, best
known for the work he does for Microdeal,
Chas, a chartered engineer, began
working for Microdeal two years ago, at
about the same time that he set up his own
consultancy company. His largest custom-
er is Microdeal for whom he does all the

Tandy to Dragon conversions from la pes
received from Tandy in America. He also
has the job of converting Dragon tapes to
the Color Computer,

Converting a Tandy tape to the Dragon
is not an easy process says Chas. "We
only get the finished program not the
source tape, so we have to disassemble it,
examine the contents, locate the areas
that need changing, make the changes
and Check to see if they work." It is a long
process which requires continual checking
and counter checking.

Chas — on the hotline

Chas s other major project for the Dra-
gon involved the design of the software
key or "dongle" that Microdeal launched
with Buzzard Bait in order to combat
piracy,

Besides his work for Microdeal and the
Dragon, Chas has also worked on graphic
designs for the Commodore 64, Z80 and
Color Computer. He has a pool of four
specialists who he can contract work out
to, and will undertake a wide spectrum of
projects, from electronics design
to adding finishing touches to software ■

B*<X):NEXTX

C*(X>sNEXTX

80 CLEAR2000

90 DIM A<15> t B(15>:T=15
100 FOR X* 1 TO 15
READ A(X)

NEXT X

FOR X= 1 TO 3: READ

FOR X- I TQ 3: READ

GQSUB 1070

CLS:GOSUB 670

REM HUMANS MOVE

PRINT® 448, "REMOVE HOW MANY BO

a»3>";

INPUT H

IF H<1 OR H>3 THEN PRINT&448,S
TRING* <26 t 143> ; : GOTO 180
210 IF H>T THEN 1BO

FOR X*l TO H

PR INT&44B, STRING* (32, 143) J

PRINT© 448 f M BOX #";X;

INPUT H<X)

IF H<X)>15 OR H(X><1 THEN

HO
120
130
140
ISO
160
170
190
XES
190
200

220
230

240
250
260

270 IF B(H(X))=0 THEN 60SUB 400: GO

TO 240

280 B(H(X) )~0

NEXT X

FOR X= 1 TO H

SOUND 200,1

PRINT© A(H(X) ) ,E*;

PRINTS A(H<X>>+32,E*;

FOR Y=l TO 500: NEXT Y

NEXT X

T=T-H

P*=" HUMAN"

GOTO 870

REM INVALID CHOICE

PRINT@448,"THAT BOX

240

290

300

310

320

330

340

350

360

370

380

390

40O

D"

410

420

430

440

450

WAS REMOVE

FOR Y^ 1 TO 1500: NEXT Y

PRINTS44S, STRING* (26, 143) 5

RETURN

REM COMPUTERS MOVE

PRINT@44a,"my turn"

24 Dragon User September 1984

1

460 FOR X^l TO 1000:NEXT X

950 IF A*="N" THEN CLSsEND

470 IF T=15 THEN H=2

960 FOR X= 1 TO 15: B (X) =1 : NEXT X

4B0 IF T=13 OR T=9 OR T=5 THEN H=l

970 T=15sGQT0160

490 IF T-14 OR T=iO OR T=6 THEN H=

9SO DATA 68,73,78,83,88

1

990 DATA 196,201,206,211,216

500 IF T=12 OR T=B OR T-4 THEN HK5

lOOO DATA 324,329,334,339,344

510 IF T=li OR T=7 OR T=3 THEN H=2

10 lO DATA you win-luck is with you

520 IF T=2 THEN H=l

human

530 IF T= 1 THEN H=l

1020 DATA beware-nimbo is a poor 1

540 FOR K= 1 TO H

oser

550 Y=RND(15>

560 IF B(Y)=0 THEN 550

1030 DATA ha! nimbo just let you w

570 H(X)=Y

i n !

5B0 BCH(X> >=0

1040 DATA stupid human— why don't y

590 NEXT X

ou try7

600 FOR X= 1 TO H:PRINT@ A(H(X)>,E

1050 DATA i won without even conce

*;: PRINT © A (H (X) > +32, E*; : SOUND 10

ntrating

0,1

1060 DATA the superior mind has wo

610 FOR Y= i TO 500: NEXT Y

n again!

620 NEXT X

1070 CLSO

630 PRINT©448,"i chose; " ; : FOR X= 1

1080 PRINT © 105,"CAN YOU OUTWIT";

TO H:PRINTH(X> ; : NEXT X

1090 PRINT @ 137, " THE MIGHTY " - f

640 FOR Y=l TO 1 GOO: NEXT Y

11O0 PRINT © 169," NIMBO? ";

650 T-T~H;P*= H COCO": GOTO 870

lllO FOR X« 1 TO 1500: NEXT X

660 REM set up screen

1120 PRINT © 321," WHAT IS YOUR NA

670 PRINTQO, STRING* (32, 191 > $

ME, UNWISE ";

6BO PRINT©416, STRING* <32, 191);

1130 PRINT © 353," CHALLENGER

690 FOR Y^ 1 TO 27

5

700 SET(0,Y,4):SET(63,Y,4>

1140 PRINT©369,"";: INPUT NM*

710 NEXT Y

1150 CLSO

720 A*=CHR$ (175) +CHR* ( 1 75 J +CHR$ ( 17

1160 PRINT©32," NEED INSTRUCT I

5>+CHR*(170>

ONSfY/N) ";: INPUT A*s IF A*="N" THEN

730 FOR X=* 1 TO 15

RETURN

740 PRINT© A(X) ,A*;: PRINT© A<X)-32

1170 FOR X= 1 TO 500: NEXT X

,X;

11 SO PRINT © 96," YOU HAVE TAKEN I

750 PRINT©137,LEFT*(B$,15>;

T UPON YOUR- ";

760 PRINT© A (X) +32, AS;

1190 PRINT © 128," SELF TO TRY TO

770 PRINT©230,LEFT*(B#,20>;

OUTWIT THE ";

7S0 NEXT X

1200 PRINT © 160," MOST-WISE NIMBO

790 PRINT@324,B$;

. THE TASK ";

BOO PRINT©1 3, "NIMBO";

1210 PRINT © 192," BEFORE YOU IS T

BIO FOR X= 1 TO 15

REMOVE ";

820 B(X^1

1220 PRINT © 224," EITHER 1,2 OR 3

830 NEXT X

BLUE BOXES "j

840 E*=CHR* ( 143) +CHR* (143) +CHR* ( 14

1230 PRINT © 256," ON YOUR TURN, A

3)+CHR*U43)

ND SOMEHOW " ;

850 RETURN

1240 PRINT © 288," FORCE ME TO TAK

860 REM check for win/lose

E THE LAST " ;

870 IF T=G AND P*-" HUMAN" THEN PR I

1250 PRINT © 320," BOX. BUT, IF I

NT © 448,C*(RND(3));:CQC0=COC0+l:G

FORCE YOU TO ";

OTO 900

1260 PRINT © 352," TAKE THE LAST B

880 IF T=0 AND P*-"CQCO" THEN PR I

OX, YDU HAVE " ;

NT© 448 , B* ( RND ( 3 ) > ; : HUMAN^HUMAN+ 1 :

1270 PRINT © 384," AGAIN DEMONSTRA

GOT0900

TED YOUR LACK ";

890 IF P*=" HUMAN" THEN 450 ELSE IB

1230 PRINT © 416," OF WISDOM AND T

HE POWER OF "j

900 FOR X= 1 TO 2000: NEXT X

1290 PRINT © 448," NIMBO !

910 PRINT © 448, NM*; HUMAN

920 RRINT©465, "NIMBO"; COCO

1300 PRINT© 4S4," PRESS ENTER TO

930 PRINT © 480, "care to play agai

PLAY"? : INPUT A*

n?":

1310 RETURN

940 AS-INKEY*: IF A*= M " THEN 940

1320 Y=RND ( 15 >: PRINT Y;:GOTO 1320

September 1934 Dragon User 25

f

Datopen

A QUALITY LIGHTPEN

for the DRAGON 32 microcomputer

Datapen

£25

i nc I u sive of VAT. P&P Two d i fterent d row fng prog ra ms
pro vi ded free witti e ach I ig htpen . "S K ETC H "a nd
SHAPE-CREATE' SKETCH is a superb high resolution
colour drawing
program allowing
both precise drawing
and treeh and sketching,
painting etc,
SHAPE-CREATEisa
high resolution library
sha pe d ra wi n g program

SUPERIOR PROGRAMS

* Tape storage of your work

* Good documentation

* User routines provided
on tape and on printout

Also a vaila ble for:- VIC-20, C8M-64
or BBC B . Please state your mi cro
when ordering.

Send cheque or PO tor £25 to:-

D.U.9 Datapen Microtech no logy Limited,

Kingsclere Road, Overton, Hants. RG25 3JB

Or send S.A.E. for details Now avoitoble from good computer shops

SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE

* Insensitive to ambient lighting

« Responds to different colours

* Program accessible LED lamp readout

* Switch for program control

lL lt differs from all other lightpens

available for the Dragon in that

it is a far mare sophisticated

beast .,. This program

[Sketch) ... clearly

demonstrates

the superiority

of the Datapen"

Popular

computing

Weekly.

Dec. 15th

SPRITES FOR THE DRAGON

* UP TO 126 NON-DESTRUCTIVE SPRITES

* SIZE SINGLE PIXEL TO 1 GOO PIXELS

* COLLISION DETECTION

* AUTOMATIC ANIMATION

* AUTOMATIC MAZE RUNNING MODE

+ AUTOMATIC JOVSTICK/KEVBOARD CONTROL

* ENHANCED SOUND FACILITIES

* TEXT IN ALL MODES, TRUE LOWER CASE ASCII

* REDEFINABLE CHARACTER SET

* MIXED TEXT AND GRAPHICS IN ALL MODES

* AUTO REPEAT KEYBOARD

* DOZENS OF POWERFUL NEW COMMANDS

* SIX FREE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS

* COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL

Sprite magic comes on cassette in a double size audio box
complete with manual for £17.25 all inclusive,

Also available on disk running under DRAGON DOS for £19.25

all inclusive.

Available soon for the IKON ultra-drive and delta disk systems

(please check for availability).

WHAT THE MAGAZINES SAID:

"Excellent" and "Superb" — PCW, March 1984.

Quite simply the best Dragon utility on the markel today" —

DRAGON WORLD, April 1984.

"Fantastic ... if you've got a Dragon what on earth are you doing

without Sprite Magic?" — PCN, May 19Q4.
"This is a very professional program and can certainly he

recommended" — DRAGON USER, June 1984.
"Go out and buy it, it's worth every penny" — PCG, June 1984.

Please phone your Aocess'Visa number or send cheque or PO to:

KNIGHT SOFTWARE

Available from

selected branches

of Boots

(Merlin Microsystems)

93a High Street

Eston, Cleveland

Tel: (0642) 454863

Distributed by

Websters
SoHwane Lid

DUCKWORTH
HOME COMPUTING

All books written by Peter Gerrard, former editor of Commodore
Computing International, author of two top-selling adventure
games for the Commodore 64, or by Kevin Bergin. Both are regular
contributors to Personal Computer News, Which Micro? and
Software Review and Popular Computing Weekly.

EXPLORING ADVENTURES ON THE DRAGON
by Peter Gerrard £6.95
This is a complete look at the fabulous world of Adventure Games
for the Dragon Computer. Starting with an introduction to adven-
tures, and their early history, it takes you gently through the basic
programming necessary on the Dragon before you can start writing
your own games.

Inputting information, room mapping, movement, vocabulary -
everything required to write an adventure game is explored in
detail There follow a number of adventure scenarios, just to get
yon started, and finally three complete listings written specially lor
the Dragon, which will send you off into wonderful worlds where
almost anything can happen.

The three games listed in this book are available on one cassette.

Other titles in the series include Spritei & Sound on the 64, 12
Simple Electronic Projects tor the VIC, Will You Still Love Me
WhenI'm 64, Advanced Basic & Machine Code Programming an
the VIC, Advanced Basic & Machine Code Programming on the
64, as well as Pocket Handbooks for the VIC, 64, Dragon, Spectrum
and BBC Model B.

Write in for a catalogue.

mm

DUCKWORTH

The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1 7DY
Tel: 1-485 34B4

26 Dragon User September 1 984

Kick start for
Ultra Drive

Brian Cadge takes a look at the Ultra Drive —
a high-speed storage system for the Dragon

1

FROM THE letters we receive at Dragon
User, ft is obvious that quite a number of
readers spend a lot of their time grappling
with cassette recorders, trying in vain to
load that program that took hours to type
in. At last there is a reasonably priced
solution — for just £60 you can own an
Ikon Ultra Drive.

The Ultra Drive is based on a Philips
mini digital cassette recorder, which uses
cassettes similar to those used in dictation
machines. For your cash you'll receive the
Drive itself, in a sturdy metal case finished
in the same livery as the Dragon 32, the
interface cartridge and a manual, plus one
blank mini cassette to get you started,

The interface is the same size as a
standard Dragon cartridge and plugs in as
normal, the only difference being the 12
inches of ribbon cable which protrudes out
to conned to the drive.

Looking in

Taking a look inside revealed a very
simple circuit board, just a 4k eprom to
hold the extensions to Basic, a 6821 PIA
(the same chips are used inside the
Dragon to control I O operations), and a
few resistors and transistors. Unfortunate-
ly, the cartridge is an extremely tight fit;
whilst this will certainly prevent any
crashes due to bad connections, I wouldn't
speculate how long the Dragon s edge
connector would stand up to the strain of
repeatedly plugging and unplugging the
cartridge, All the power for the interface
and the drive are taken directly from the
computer,

There are no external controls except for
the eject button as all operations are
controlled by the computer For example,
to rewind a tape in the drive you simply
enter the command REWIND, Similarly, to
advance (or fast-forward} the tape there is
the ADVANCE command, Both of these
immediately return the OK prompt — once
the drive has been sent a command it gets
on with it on its own,

In operation, the Ultra Drive is essential-
ly a fast and very reliable cassette recorder
— that is you must position the tape in the
correct place to record the next program.
(Unlike a disk drive, the Ultra Drive does
not do this for you,) There is a SKIP
command which acts like the SKI PF com-
mand to help position the tape for reading
or writing, When loading a file, it is impor-
tant to make sure that the tape is sorne-

Tbe Drive: a sturdy metal case from (Hon

where before the file or the drive will reach
the "End of Files" and give up the search
— it will not automatically rewind to carry
on looking. There are, thankfully, no 1,0
errors for starting a tape mid-way through
a recording.

The first thing to be done on a new tape
is to type INIT, which initialises the tape
directory and prepares the cassette for
recording. Saving and loading Basic prog-
rams is identical to using the normal
cassette, except that "Save" and "Load''
are used rather than "Csave" and
"Cload". In addition, if the first character of
a filename is "!", the program is saved as
a protected file. This means any attempt to
read or append the program will result in it
autorunning with the break key disabled.
Similar commands "Savem", "Loadm"
and "Runm" exist for machine code prog-
rams

Once you have several files on a tape
you may start forgetting where programs
are. The DIR command will first rewind the
tape and then list each filename on the
tape together with the type of file, its
length, start and execute addresses, Only
the name and type is displayed for a
protected file.

The area which I thought the Ultra Drive
would probably be most useful turned out
to be the most disappointing feature — file
handling. Although the Dragon's cassette
filing system is slow and not very reliable, it
is quite sophisticated Similar commands
have not been implemented on the Ultra
Drive. There are just two filing commands

— SAVED and LOADD. These will save
and load whole or chunks of arrays on to

the drive. The arrays can be numeric or
character, although the manual only men-
tions numeric arrays,

The inclusion of these commands mean
that it is not impossible to do file handling
programs fsuch as databases) on the Ultra
Drive, but it is certainly not as flexible as
the Dragon s own COS,

In addition to the Ultra Drive commands,
there are a few (very easily implemented)
additions to Microsoft These are Break ON
and OFF, to disable the Break key; Fast
and Slow, which do the same as the high
speed poke and so cause some Dragons
to crash; and finally, OLD. which will
recover a Basic program after it has
accidentalfy been NEWed, provided no
new lines have since been entered. I
would have preferred to see more useful
commands like automatic line numbering
and error trapping implemented, rather
than these cosmetic commands such as
FAST & SLOW.

Error messages

A first feature which I disliked in the OS

was its error handling. Whilst error mes-
sages are in nice plain English, such as
"No tape" and "End of Files", if these
occur during a program they are printed on
the screen, but the program does not stop
and there is no error trapping or detection
included., This could create Ghaos in a
program which loads arrays from the drive,
if the user forgets to put the tape in, or puts
the wrong tape in,

Although there are features I would like
to see improved, the Ultra Drive's good
points far outweigh the bad The system
proved to be very reliable in use, has a
capacity of 200k per cassette, and is some
10 times faster than a normal cassette, A
good quality tape recorder will cost around
£40 anyway, so for just £80 the Ultra Drive
is very good value for the User who is tired
of cassettes, but cannot afford to move up
to a disk drive. ■

The Ultra Drive costs £79,95 +

£3,45 p&p. A box of 6 cassettes
cosls £20.13.

Both are available frorn Ikon
Computer Products, Dept, 6. Kiln

Lake, Laugharne, Dyfed 5A33
4DE. TeL 099 421 51 5 for further
information,'

September 1984 Dragon User 27

THE ABSENCE of a serial port on thi
Dragon 32 prevents communications with
RS232 devices, such as printers, other
micros, modems and so on, As a result, a
number of suitable RS232 interfaces have
appeared. In addition, interest in using the
Dragon to monitor and control external
events is increasing, and dedicated I/O
ports are therefore also becoming avail-
able. The most recent interface on offer is
the rather unusual RS232 I/O Port Inter-
face from Steve's Electronics Supply (an
established Dragon Service Agent who
has recently entered the Dragon add-on
market).

User-friendly

It differs from previous units which we
have seen in that it houses not only a
standard RS232 port but also a compre-
hensive two-port parallel input/output facil-
ity, and provides straightforward user-
friendly access through the extension of
the standard Basic command set. In addi-
tion to a 6551 Universal Asynchronous
Receiver Transmitter the unit uses the
very powerful 6522 Versatile Interface
Adaptor which provides not only two eight-
bit parallel ports, but also handshaking
lines for bi-directional data transfer, two
16-bit programmable timers, and a
synchronous/asynchronous shift register

This is a very professionally produced
unit and it is housed in a custom ABS
cartridge (about the size of a disk control-
ler). A good example of the fine attention
paid to detail in the design is the fact that
not only are two integral legs incorporated
into the case, but two lugs moulded on to
the front edges to provide a snug fit so that
the unit does not have to rely on the ability
of the edge connector to defy gravity.
Power is taken directly from the Dragon
(with a red LED power-on indicator} and
both a 25-way D-type RS232 socket and a
40-way IDC I/O port socket are provided.

Removing the lid reveals a neatly laid-
out PCB bearing the respected name of
Race Electronics Notable features are a
271 6 Eprom containing the operating sys-
tem software, a 6522 VIA, a 6551 LP ART,
the crystal, and a multiple DIP switch
allowing reconfiguration of the RS232 port
as Data Communication Equipment or
Data Terminal Equipment, Only RTS (Re-

Plug in,

switch on
and go - - -

Keith and Steven Brain look at a handy RS232 I/O port interface

quest to send) and GTS (Clear to send)
signals are used.

On power up the standard Dragon start
message is supplemented by the words
Extended Control Basic, and the full fea-
tures of the unit are now easily available
through 13 new Basic commands, rather
than the more usual PEEKing and
POKEing. BAUD sets the baud rate be-
tween SO and 19,200, whilst TERM pro-
vides a very simple terminal emulator
where ASCII control codes to 26 are
available by pressing Shift and the
appropriate letter.

The RS232 plugs in

Selection of RS2320N echoes all
keyboard input to the RS232 port, and
RS232 port input to the screen, until
RS2320FF is selected INBYTE(O) and
SPO are more selective commands which
respectively read and write single bytes
between the RS232 port and Basic, Trans-
fer of Basic and machine code files from

Dragon to Dragon is we If supported,
SSAVE and SLOAD transfer ASCII format
("spooled") Basic programs with file sear-
ching, whilst SSAVEM and SLOADM
transfer binary data in Intellec hex format.

Detailed manual

The data formal and transmission pro-
tocol for these commands are described in
detail in the manual, so that transfer to and
from other machines can be catered for
But whilst testing out the unit we were
interested to discover that if RS2320N was
selected and a Basic program file up-
loaded from a Tandy 100 via its inbuilt
Telecom package then the Dragon would
happily accept this as keyboard input and
crunch it as usual (at least at low baud
rates).

The 6551 UART is set up by default for
the most usual RS232 data format (1 start,
6 data, 2 stop bits, no parity) but if
necessary this can be modified. This is the
only command not included in the exten-
sion to Basic but is accomplished by
POKEing to the command and control
registers at &HF002 and &HFQ03.

The 6522 I/O lines and many of the 6309
bus lines are brought out to the 40-way
IDC connector and are thus available for
connection to whatever peripheral equip-
ment you want. Inport(n) and Outport(n)
provide easy read and write of true (non-

insiite She RS232 reveals a neatly laid-oul PCB bearing (tie respected name of Race Electronics

28 Dragon User September 1934

CONNECTIONS AVAILABLE ON IDC
INPUT/ OUTPUT CONNECTOR

1 PORT AO
3 PORT Al
5 PORT A2
7 PORT A3
9 PORT A4
11 PORT AS
13 PORT AA
IS PORT A7
17 CA1 *
19 CA2 *
21 PORT BO
23 PORT Bl
2S PORT B2
27 PORT B3
29 PORT B4
31 PORT B5
33 PORT B6
35 PORT B7
37 CB1 *
39 CB2 *

2 ADDRESS BUS

4 ADDRESS BUS
6 ADDRESS BUS

5 ADDRESS BUS
10 ADDRESS BUS
12 GND

14 R/W

16 6809E CLOCK

18 XSEL
20 GND

22 DATA BUS O
24 DATA BUS 1
26 DATA BUS 2
28 DATA BUS 3
30 DATA BUS 4
32 DATA BUS 5
34 DATA BUS 6
36 DATA BUS 7
38 +5V
40 +5v

O

1
2
3
4

* port handshake signals

inverted) 8-bit values at I/O PORT A or B,
with automatic configuration to the
appropriate mode.

Inbyte [4-15) allows reading of the VIA
registers, whilst the VIA command allows
write only access to these registers. The

manual stresses the complexity of the
6522 (and the desirability of getting your
hands on a data sheet) but gives some
practical examples, involving monitoring,
switching, square wave generation and
timing.

Everyone still laughs at Uncle Clive's
exaggerated claim that you coufd control a
power station with a ZX81. but with this
unit attached to your Dragon you could
certainly get to grips with some interesting
control appfications, wheiher they involve
running your model railway, robot arm.
central heating, burglar afarm system or
more serious projects. Care must be taken
to ensure that additional circuitry does not
draw too much power from the Dragon, but
even mains loads can be switched directly
via solid state relays.

Incompatible

As it stands the unit is not compatible
with the Dragon 64 (which already has an
RS232 port anyway) as it calls one of the
ll corrected" ROM routines (USR(09)}.
Also, there is some doubt whether the
original power supply on the 64 is powerful
enough to take on the additional toad
imposed by the unit in addition to 64 K of
RAM.

The price of the unit is £54.50, with the
full technical manual being available for a
further £4.50, and as the "going rate ' for
even the simplest RS232 interface seems
to be around £50 it certainly offers excel-
lent value for money,

The bare case, a prototyping board, and
two versions of an Eprom programmer are
also available and we hope to include a
review of I he latter in a forthcoming issue
of Dr&gon User. For further details contact
Steve's Electronics Supply Company, 35
Castle Arcade. Cardiff CF1 2BW, let
(0222) 41905. ■

of the

The RAINBOW is the biggest and
bes! magazine available for the TRS-
&0' Color, TDP-100, MC-IOand
Dragon-32 Computers

And no wonder! It's over 300 pages
thick each month . . . pages brimming
with programs, product reviews,
tutorials, columns, hints and tips
about your computer, Yes, it is consi-
dered "the" Color Computer maga-
zine to buy.

Don't delay. For only £28 you can
get the Rasnhow every month of the
year. Then your CoCo will be Kong of
the Hill too!

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^

September 1984 Dragon User 29

DRAGON

OPEN FILE

Send us your Dragon programs, beginning with a general description and then explaining how the program is constructed.

Take care that the listings are ail bug free, enclosing a cassette and, if possible, a printout. We pay £6 for each original

bug-free program published, double for the program of the month. If you have any problems with the listings, please send

your queries to the appropriate author, Dragon User, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 3LD.

From Lam Huyen Le in North London
THIS PROGRAM was written in low re-
solution graphics by using CHR$ com-
mand to print the maze and objects.

In this program you control a small
flashing square at the bottom of Ihe
screen. Your job is try to eat all the objects
in orange and purple which appear ran-

domly around the screen. You must do this
in time or without hitting into the maze. You
can also use a bomb to break Ihe maze if
you get stuck, but you will lose a life each
time you do this. Yoti have five lives ancf
three levels to play Put you need a certain
number of points to transport into the next
one.

Program notes

10-180 Instructions.

200-090 Set screen and prints maze.

700-820 Prints door and objects.

830-940 Prints your block, score and

lives and checks key's.

950-970 Score check.

980-1130 Mo vement no utine .

1 1 70-1 270 Sels maze and new time for

level 2.
1280-1320 Bombs routine .
1 330^ 1410 Set maze and time for level

3.

1 420 - 1 S 1 Wi nning routine
1520-1800 Lose routine and end of
game.

10 REM*******#THIEF MAN********
20 REM***BY LAM HUYEN LE .84***
30 CLSO: PRINTS 167, "M A 2 E T H I

E F " ; : SCREENO , 1
40 PRINT@230, "BY LAM HUYEN LE 198
4"; : SCREENO, 1
50 FQRI=lT020O0:NEXT

60 PRINTS32B, " INSTRUCTIONS (Y/N) " ; s
SCREENO ,1

70 A*=INKEY*:IF A*=""THEN 70
80 IF A*- "Y" THEN 1QO
90 IF A*="N"THEN 150 ELSE 70

100 CLS3:FRINTe0,STRING*(32,233) ; j
PR INT©4BO, STRING* (31,233);

101 F0RT=32T044QSTEP32 : PRINTQT , CHR
*(233) ; sPRINT@T+31 , CHR* < 233) ; :NEXT
SPR1NTS33, "****<<<<< INSTRUCT IONS >
>> > >**** " ; : SCREENO , 1

102 PRINT€98,"THE OBJECT IS TO PIC
K UP MANY";

103 PRINT@130, "OBJECT (ORANGE AND
PURPLE) AS";

104 PRINT© 161, "YOU CAN WITHOUT HIT
ING YOUSELF";

105 PRINT® 194, "INTO THE WALL (BLUE
MAZE). . .";

106 PRINT©225,"Y0U CONTROL THE SMA
LL FLASHING";

107 PRINTS25S, "BY USING THE FOUR A
RROW KEYS";

108 PRINTe290, ,r YOU CAN ALSO USE TH
E SPACEBAR";

109 PRINT®322,"TO BLOW THE WALL BU
T YOU WILL";

110 PRINT@354,"L0SE A LIVE EACH TI
ME";

111 PRINT@418,"PRESS SPACEBAR TO S

EE MORE, .";

112 SCREENO, 1

113 IF INKEY*<>" "THEN 113

114 CLS7s PR INTGO, STRING* (32,233);:
PR I NT@4SO , STR I NG* C 3 1 , 233 ) ;

115 FORT=32T0448STEP32s PRINTQT , CHR
* (233) ; : PRINTST+31 , CHR* (233) ;

116 NEXT

117 PRlNTe34,"THERE ARE THREE LEVE
L TO PLAY";

11B PRINTS66, "THE FIRST ONE HAS OR
DER MAZE";

119 PRINT@98,"Y0U NEED TO GET MORE
THAN 700";

120 PRINTS130, "POINTS AND MUST GET
THROUGH";

121 PRINT® 162, "THE DOOR (WHITE) TO
GO ON TO";

122 PRINTS 194, "THE NEXT LEVEL...";

123 PRINT@226," HOWEVER IF YOU DON*
T FINISH";

124 PRINT@25B," IN TIME YOU WILL BE
SEND TO";

125 PR1NT®290,"JA1L. ALSO IF YOU G
O ON TO ";

126 PRINT@322,'*THE DOOR AND DON'T
HAVE A";

127 PRINTQ354, "RIGHT NUMBER OF POI
NTS YOU ";

128 PRINT@386," INSTANLY WIPE THE D
OOROFF ";

130 PRINT@450,"PRESS SPACE BAR TO
SEE MORE.";

131 SCREENO, 1

132 IF INKEY*<>" "THEN 132

133 CLSSsPRINTGO, STRING* (32, 233) ; :
PRINTe40O,STRING*(31 ,233) ;

30 Dragon User September 1984

HIT YOURSE

LIVE WILL

1 34 F0RT=32T0448STEP32 i PR I NTST , CHR
*<233) ; :PRINT«T+31,CHR*<233) * 8 NEXT

135 PRINTG34 I ,, 0N LEVEL TWO AND THR

EE THE ";

136 FRINT©66,"WALLS ARE SET RANDOM
LY SO YOU";

137 PR I NT 698, "HAVE TO SORT YOURSEL
F OUT u ;

138 PRINT@130,"QUICK AS POSIBLE.
YOU NEED" j

139 PR I NTS 162, "MORE THAN 1500 PDIN

TS TO BO";

140 PRINT@194,"DN TO LEVEL THREE A
ND 2SOO •■ ;

141 PRINTe226,'POINTS TO WIN THE 6

AME";

142 PRINT@258,"YDU HAVE 5 LIVES AN
D EACH ";

143 PRlNTe290,"TIME YOU
LF OR USE";

144 PRINT«322, "A BOMB A
BE LOSE ";

145 PRINTQ354, "AND REMEMBER THAT Y
0U ONLY ";

146 PRINT@3S6, "HAVE A LIMIT OF TIM
E ";

147 PRINT6450, "PRESS SPACEBAR TO S
TART ";: SCREENO , 1

148 IF INKEY*<>" "THEN 148
150 CLSRND(S)

160 PRINT@235,"GOaD LUCK" ; ; SCREENO
1

TUNE*="03L2. BL4B04L4CCP403L4BO
4L 4C03L4 B AGL 1 F#P404L2DC03L8BGa4L8C
03L8AD4L4DCQ3L2BALIG; "
100 PLAY"T6XTUNE*;Tl0XTUNE*; f1
200 CLSO

X=32 : Y=29: 5D=0 : L=5

F0RI=0TQ14

PR I NT@0+ 1 f CHR* ( 1 75 ) ;

PRINTS! 7+ 1 , CHR* (175) ;

PRINT@448+I f CHR*(175> ;

PR I NTG465+ I , CHR* ( 1 75 )

FDRI=0 TQ3B4 STEP32

PR INTQ32+ 1 , CHR* ( 1 75 > ;

PR I NT©63+ I , CHR* (175);

F0RI=1T04

PR I NT@65+ I , CHR* (175);

PRlNTe74+I , CHR* (175) ;

PR 1 NTQBO+ I , CHR* (175);
340 PR!NTe89+I T CHR*(175) ;
350 PRINT@i29+I,CHR*(175> ;
360 PRINTS1 38+1, CHR* (175);
370 PR I NTG 144+ I, CHR* (1 75) ;
3BO PR I NTQ 153+ I, CHR* (175) ;
390 PRINT@193+1,CHR*<175);
400 PR I NTS202+ I , CHR* ( 1 75) ;
4L0 PRINT@208+I,CHR*(175) j
420 PRINT@217+I,CHR*(175> ;
430 PR1NTG257+I,CHR*(175) ;
440 FRINT@266+I t CHR* (175);
450

170

210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330

NEXT

NEXT I

PRINT£272+I . CHR* (175) ;

460

470

480

490

500

510

520

530

540

550

560

570

580

590

600

610

620

630

640

650

660

670

680

690

700

710

720

730

740

750

760

770

);

780

>;

790

);

800

>s

810

);

820
830
840
860

870

SBO

890

900

910

20

920

60

930

oo

940

80

950

+RND

N SC

960

PRINT@281+I,CHR*(175) ?

PRINT@32I+I,CHR*(I75) ;

PR I NT@330+ I , CHR* (175);

PR INTS336+ 1 , CHR* ( 1 75 > ;

PRINTS345+I ,CHR*( 175) ;

PRINTS3B5+I,CHR*(175! ;

PR INT&394+ I , CHR* 1 175) ;

PR INT@400+ I , CHR* (175);

PRINTQ409+I t CHR* ( 175) ;

NEXT

F0RI=1T03

PR I NTG70+ I , CHR* (175);

PRINT@85+I ,CHR* (175) ;

PRINT@134+I T CHR*(175) ;

PR I NTS 149+ I, CHR* (I 75) ;

PRINTS 198+ I ,CHR* ( 175) ;

PRINT«213+I,CHR*<175) ;

PRINT@262+I,CHR*(175) ;

PRINT@277+I ,CHR* (175) ;

FRINT@326+I 1 CHR*(I75) ;

PRINT@341+I , CHR* (175) ;

PRINTQ390+I T CHR* ( 175) ;

PR I NTQ405+ I , CHR* ( 1 75 ) ;

NEXT

TIMER=0

T=0

F0RI=lTO2

PRINTS 14+ 1 , CHR* (207) ;

NEXT

R=RND(29) :PRINT@33+R,CHR*(255
R=RND ( 29 > ; PR I NT@99+R ( CHR* (255

>

R=RND ( 29 ) ; PR I NTS 1 6 I +R , CHR* ( 255

R=RND ( 29 ) : PR I NT@22S+R , CHR* ( 255

R=RND(29> :PRINT@289+R,CHR*(255

R=RND (29) : PRINTQ353+R ,CHR* (255

R=RND(29) :PRINT@417+R,CHR*(255

R=RND(4B0) :PRlNTeO+R T CHR*(223> "»

PRlNT@4S0, r, *#SCDRE: ";SC;

PRINT6495, "LIVES; ";L;

IF TIMER>150O +T THEN 1530

SET(X,Y,2)

PLAY"04L20OAA"

RESET (X f Y)

IF PEEK (34 1> =223 THEN GQSUB 98

IF PEEK(342>=223 THEN GOSUB 10

IF PEEK (343) =223 THEN GOSUB 10

IF PEEK (344) =223 THEN GOSUB 11

IF PEEK (345) =223 THEN GOSUB 12

IF POINT <X,Y)=B THEN SC=SC+100
(100) ELSE IF P0INT(X,Y)=6 THE
=SC+RND<500)+100

IF 50=700 AND PQINT(X,Y)=5 TH
___ ContFnued on page 32

September 1984 Dragon User 31

1500 AND POINT

lOOO
1010
1020
1030

EN 1170 ELBE IF SC>=
<X,Y)=4 THEN 1330

962 IF SC>=2500 AND P0INT(X,Y>=7 T
HEN 1430

964 IF L=0 THEN CLSRND <S) : PRINTS22
8, "YOU LOST ALL LIVES, YOUR SCORE I
S";SC; : PRINT: PR I NT "PRESS SPACEBAR
TO PLAY AGAIN"; s GOSUB 1700
970 GOTO B30
9B0 Y=Y-1

990 IF POINT<X,Y)=3 THEN Y=Y+2:SDU
ND2G0,2:L=L-1: IF POINT (X , Y> =5 AND
SC<=70O THEN Y=Y+2: IF P0INT(X,Y)=4
AND SC<=1500 THEN Y=Y+2
IF Y=0 THEN Y=l
RETURN
Y=Y+2

IF POINT(X,Y>=3 THEN Y=Y-2:SO

UND200 T 2:L=L-1: IF POINT<X,Y)=5 AND

SC<=700 THEN Y=Y-2:ELSE IF POINT (

X,Y>=4 AND SC<=150O THEN Y=Y-21040

IF Y=31 THEN Y=30
1050 RETURN
1O60 X=X-2

107O IF X=0 THEN X=l

1080 IF P0INTCX,Y>=3 THEN X=X+2:S0

UND200,l:L=L-ls IF P0INT(X,Y)=5 AND

SC<=70O THEN X=X+2:ELSE IF POINT (

X f Y>=4 AND SC<=1500 THEN X=X+21090

RETURN
1100 X=X+2

1110 IF X-63 THEN X=62
1120 IF PQINT(X,Y>=3 THEN X-X-2:S0
UND 200,1:L=L-1: IF P0lNT(X f Y>=5 AN
D SC<=700 THEN X=X-2: IF POINT (X T Y>
=4 AND SC<=1500 THEN X=X-2
1130 RETURN

F0RI=1T02

PRlNTei4+I,CHR*(12S» ;
NEXT I: RE TURN
CLSO : FQRM= 1 T05 1 O
S=RND(4>

IF S=2 THEN PRINTCHR*(175) 5 E
LSE PRINTCHR*(12B) ;
1200 NEXT M
TIMER^O
T=200+RND ( 1 00 >
Z=RND(480)
F0RI=1T02

PRINTSZ+I ,CHR* ( 191 > ; :NEXTI
GOT07SO
RETURN

RESET CX-1 , Y-l ) s RESET (X , Y-l ) : R
ESET(X+i,Y-l)

1290 RESET (X-l ,Y> ; RESET CX+1 -Y) : RES
ETCX-1 t Y+l)

1300 PLAY"03V31T10L10CCCCCCCCCC"

1140
1150
1160
1170
HBO
1190

1210

1220
1230
1240
1250
1260
1270
1280

1310 L=L-1
1320 RETURN

1330 CLS0:FQRA=lTO510

1340 R=RND<3>

1350 IF R=3 THEN PRINT CHR*(175);E

LSE PRINT CHR$(12B>;

1355 NEXTA

1360 TIMER-0

1370 T=300+RNDU00)

13B0 W=RND(510)

1 390 PR I NTeW , CHR# ( 239 > ;

1400 GOT0750

1405 IF PDINT<X,Y>=7 THEN L=L-1

1410 RETURN

1420 REM*##WIN ROUTINE***

1430 CLSRND (B)

1440 RR=12B+RND<127>

1450 FOR 1=1 TO 16

1460 PRINTe232+I,CHR*(RR> ? ;NEXTI

1470 PR I NT@264, "CONGRATULATIONS! ! !

■■ m
?

1 480 PLAY " 04L5T 1 OEECCCEEDDDFFGGDDD
GGEEDDFFCCCC ; 03L6T 1 OEECCCEEDDDFFGG
DDDFFGGDDDGGEEDDFFCCCC"
1490 PRlNT@296,"YOU HAVE STEAL ALL
THE OBJECT THAT YOU NEEDED. YOU
R SCORE IS";SC;"AND YOU HAV£";L;"L
EFT";

1500 FORI=lT040OO:NEXT

1510 G0SUB169O

1520 REM***LOSE ROUTINE***

1530 CLS1+RNDC5)

1540 F0RI=1T022

1550 PRINT@68+I,CHR*(12B) ;

1560 PRINT® 196+ I f CHR* ( 128) ( : NEXT I

1570 PRlNT@42 f "J A I L !?";

1580 F0RI=32 TO 160 STEP 32

1590 PRINT@36+I,CHR*(128);

160O PRINT@59+I,CHR*U2B> ;

1610 PRlNTe4B+I,CHR*(128);

1620 PRINT@42+I 1 CHR$C12S> ;

1630 PRINT@54+I,CHR#<123) ; : NEXT I

1640 PRINT@263 f "B A D ■ L U C K *\
i 'i .

9

1 650 PLAY " 03 V3 1 T 2L4GGLBG6L4B- A ABGF
+G"

1660 F0RI=1 TO 200:NEXT

1670 PRINTe322 T "T00 LATE ! YOU BEEN

CAUGHT AND YOU HAVE TO GO TO JAIL!

!!YQUR SCORE IS" ; SC; "POINTS AND YO

U HAVE" ;L; "LIVES LEFT";

1680 FORI=l TO SOOOsNEXT

1690 PRINTS483, "PRESS SPACEBAR TO

PLAY AGAIN";

1700 KE*=INKEY* = IF K£*<>« "THEN 17

OO

1800 GOT02O0

Easy Edit

From Russell Stather in Humberside

THIS PROGRAM enables the selective
listing of programs without the need to
specify the start and end lines of the listing.

This is done by providing the functions of
Jfstings present, next, previous and first
lines with the press ot a key.

In addition the facility of editing the
current line with the press key is provided.

32 Dragon User September (984

Also the standard list and edit functions
are shortened to simply L and E respec-
tively. These Junctions are activated as
follows:

@ List first line.

; List next line.

— List previous line.

List current line.

Edit current line.
To use these functions just press the key
corresponding to the function and then
press enter.

The program thai does alt this is a
machine code routine that intercepts the
ROM routine that decodes the input. If it
sees something that it spots as a single
key entry then it expands it to the version
that Basic understands and places this in

the input buffer. Control is then handed
back to Basic for the interpreter to do its
work. In this way the program is kept as
small as possible

The machine code is stored in the data
statements of the Basic program and is
POKED to the correct place m RAM by
lines 10000 to 10090. in each data line
there are eight program bytes followed by
a checksum byte The checksum is in-
cluded so that any typing errors can be
easily spotted.

If an error is found then the loader
program prints the line number with
the mistake in it and stops. Once a
correct version of the code has been
stored in memory then it can be saved
with CSAVEM "EASYEDIT"

31 744,32303,559. Before the program Will
work it has to be activated with the
command EXEC 31828

Since this is a code program that Basic
uses every time it gets an input from the
keyboard, care must be taken to ensure
that the Basic program does not overwrite
it or POKE to an address within it. If the
program is interfered with then the best
that can happen is that it will stop working,
but more than likely a system crash wii;
result

In order to stop Basic overwriting, a
CLEAR command should be used to limit
the maximum Basic address to 31477 —
for instance, CLEAR 500.31477, will re-
serve 500 bytes for string space and limits
Basic to 31477 as top of RAM,

1100
1 200
1 300
1 400
1300
I 600
1 700
1800
1900
20QO
2100
2200
2300
2400
2500
2600
2700
2800
2900
3000
3100
32O0
3300
3400
3500
3600
3700
3800
3900
4000
4100
4200
4300
'i <| < ■ )

4500

i\ ,■'.■:'■"'.

4700
4800
4900
5 GOO

5 1 00

DATA069,065
DATA084.096
DATA094,065
DATA096,096
DATAO00,204
DAT A 128, 000
DAT A 125, 254
DATA255,000
DATA0Q4,000
DATA255,000
DATA073,06B
DAT A 1.63, 204
DATA096, 142
DATA255,035
DATA142,004
DATAOOO, 166
DATA057,016
DATA221 , 166
DATA128,039
DATA 1 29, 129
DAT A 164, 039
DATA042, 173
DATA235, 126
DATA032,039
DATA057,034
DATA006,057
DATA006,129
DATA002,222
DATA 167, 003
DATAL34,0S4
DAT Ai 34, 073
DATA022,255
DATA167,002
DAT A 1 67, 132
DATA 142, 124
DAT A 124,060
DAT A 142, 124
DATA052 , 002
DATA002 , 070
DAI" A! 24,065
DATA142. 1 24

,083

,089

,109,

,066

,089

,096,

,034

< i n<

,069,

,096

,096

,096,

,iei7

173

»192,

, 124

,245

,125,

, 124

251

126,

, 255

f \'<Xi

,255,

,255

ooo

235,

,000

ooo

, 000 ,

,069,

000

134,

, 124

, 129

,253,

,004

, 000

,167,

,249

, 204

,004,

,000

,198

,032,

, 1 60

, 167

,128,

, 142

124

,033,

, 160

, 160

i 128,

,019

049

063,

, 128

39

,248,

,002

032

225,

, 149

,032

,248,

, i <?:■■'

005

182,

,028

129

ooo ,

,004,

129

048,

, 1.42

002

,061,

039

242,

,166

128

038,

, 140.

002,

222

,167

002

134,

, 1^7,

132,

o5/,

,237,

189

124,

, 1 "-4 ,

073,

167,

,057.

142

124,

,065,

141 ,

079,

,i9a.

003,

247,

H 073 ,

246,

124,

,134.

OOQ ,

: a i ,

,052,

002,

036 ,l

, 142

124,

>'<'■■,

,056,

142,

124,

069,068,073, 113
082, 110,083, 194
0B2 , 096 , 096 , 1 36
096,096,096,000
197,172, 174,019
159, 126,008, 147
020,125,248,249
076,073,083,229
OOO , 000 , 008 , 090
000,000,084,033
126, 133,001 ,142
001 , 164, 134, 149
123, 140,005, 170
064,221 , 136, 144
016, 142, 124, 146
090,038,249,230
095, 142,002,099
039,250,129,229
166,160, 132,244
203,002,166,013
057, 142, 124,017
134,032,151,193
002,222, 129,089
039,024, 129, 164
034,003,053, 106
166, 128,039,250
032,246, 142, 129
252, 166, 130,080
038,247,057, 10S
033, 167,001 ,004
189, 1.24, 1 BO, 032
1 BO, 134,084,201
001 , 134,06B,234
056, 141 ,084, 135
134,001,193,101
124,071 ,016.075
071 , 166,165,087
124,072,053, 116
009,016, 142,07 3
141 ,022,016, 173
056, 141 ,013,030

5200 DATA 122, 124
53O0 DATA053,002
5400 DATA254, 166
5500 DATA090,042
'56O0 DA TA09 0,038
570O DATA005, 127
5300 DATA236,0O2
5900 DATA006,252
6000 DATA025.236
6100 DATA001 ,057
6200 DATAl.32,033
6300 DATA203, 174
6400 DATA189,125
6500 DATA 183, 124
66O0 DATA139,048
6 700 DATA141 ,049
6300 DATA124,069
6900 DATA06a,182
7000 DATA1B3, 124
71O0 DATA016, 142
7 2 GO DATA090,038
7300 DATA221 , 136
7400 DATA 189, 125
7500 DATA236,002
7600 DATA189,125
7700 DATA075, 126
78O0 DATA125, 165
7900 DAT A 124, 079
BOOO DAT A 166, 128
10000 L 1 = 1 OOO
10005 FOR 1=31744 TO
10010 SU-OiLI-LI+100
10020 FOR J^L TO 1+7
1 0030 READ A
10040 SLNSU+A
10050 F^DKE J, A
10060 NEKT J
10070 READ CH
10075 SU-5U AND 255
10080 IF SLNCH THEN

072,033, 226, 122
042,203,057, 198
133, 169, 165,025
246,057, 193,005
251,057, 182,124
124,083,032,007
253,124,075, 141
124,077,253, 1.24
002,016, 179, 124
174, 132,253,124
238,252, 124,075
132,236,002,253
Oil , 182. 124,067
065, 132, 124,068
183, 124,067, 182

139.048. 183. 124
141 .039,139,048
124,069, 132,015
069,142,124,061
002,221,166,128
249,220, 136, 131
cS/.n^n, 068,068
108, 126, 125, 165
253, 124,075, 126
108,252,124,077

125. 165. 189. 125
134,255, 183,124
016, 142,002,221
167,165,090,04 2

1.2303 STEP' 8

, 124,071

,131

,004,023

, ? 5

, 167,165

, 220

,111 ,123

,109

,083,039

,096

,158,102

, 126

,008, 141

2 J 2

,075,158

,045

,075,038

,183

,07 7,236

, 030

,057, 141

, 03 5

, 124,075.

175

,139.048

, 117

, 132,015.

125

, 124,068

, 167

,066, 182.

164

,183,124,

,099

, 1 39 , 043 ,

009

, 198,010.

143

, 167, £60,

234

, OOO , 064 ,

160

, 068 , 057 ,

2:5i

,158,025,

253

, 125, 16b,

032

, 253 , 1 24 ,

22a

,108,189,

078

,083, 142,

187

, 198,003,

017

, 249 , 057 |

040

NEXT- ELSE PRINT LI: STOP

From Duncan Rowland in Lincolnshire
THIS (S a game or reflexes. The idea is 1o

outdraw the cowboy shown on the screen
before he shoots you. 450

Program notes

60-400 The graphics of the cowboy. 820

430 Wait before the cowboy

draws (checks for a cheat).
The time after the cowboy
has drawn and before he
shoots.

If you shoot all the cowboys
then it plays a tune,

O CLSi INPUT" ENTER STARTING LEVEL (

1/lOi ";T

20 IF T<1 AND T>10 THEN RUN

30 TI=T*10Q

40 IF TKO OR TIMOOO THEN RUN

50 GDBUS 720:GQSUB 760

60 PM0DE4, I: SCREEN 1 , 1 : PCLS

70 DRAW" BUI 05, 30; D3F3R1BRI0R1E3U3

Continued on page 35

September 1984 Dragon User 33

[

MONEYBOX

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS PROGRAM
for DRAGON 32

MONEYBOX is a powerful and versatile new program for
personal accounts. It can analyse your income and
expenditure, control your bank account, credit card,
building society account, etc., forecast your bank balance,
estimate your tax liability and much more. Features
include:

+ Large capacity: up to 100 files, each with up to 99
periods, up to 100 transactions per period. Periods
user-defined (eg, month/fort nig hi/week).
+ Password protection for tape files, editing and automa-
tic date-sorting of transactions.

* Up to 10 sources of funds per file, plus up to 10 income
accounts and 30 expenditure accounts. Account
names can be changed to suit your needs.

* Five reports, lo screen or 40 B0 coJ. printer: Curreni
balances: shows eg. net worth. Forecasts: eg, esti-
mate year-end balances. Income: eg. list all/selected
receipts. Expenditure: eg list all/selected payments.
Account Statement: check your bank account, etc.

MONEYBOX is an extremely friendly program, with easy
data entry, using on-screen editing, insert and delete
keys, detailed help and error messages, repeating keys,
audible bleep. Program comes on cassette with an eleven
page instruction leaflet.

ALL FOR ONLY £9.99 incl. VAT

Cheque/ POst Further details/ Dealer enquiries to:

HARRIS MICRO SOFTWARE

49 Alexandra Road, Hounslow, Middlesex TW3 4HP
Tel: (01 > 570 6335

MAKETHEMOSTOF

DRAGON 32

Two great books to help
You tap the power of
your Dragon 32

$

\/HYtf^f ntB ]

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR

DRAGOH, by Clive Gifford, leads!
you through programming the
Dragon from first principles, and
includes more than ISO complete I
programs, including major arcade |
games. £5.95,

DYNAMIC GAMES FOR THE DRAGON 32 - Tim

Hartnell and Robert Voting. Thirty magnificent games
for the Dragon are lurking in this ISO page book, to
make your computer behave just as you hoped it would
when you bought it Programs include MAGIC CASTLE
SNARK ATTACK, SPACE RESCUE, PEVERSt/ OTHELLO
CHECKERS and CUBIKS RUBE. Just £4,95.

| hv\Kil.M-.K PiLhlic-atLon*. Depi. '>::, 9 1] ftvnsiiwjlon fhgh St London W& 5NP

L enclose £ Please *n>nd me the books indiwsed

I . Dynamic Games for the Dragon 32

* n Making the mosl of yuur Dragon.

I Maine

■ Address m

UK's LOWEST PRfNTER PRICES ! ™~-

IHM)C5D m

ORDERED TODAY - DELIVERED TOMORROW
DOT-MATRIX

SEIKOSHA GP 50

£120.00

SEIKOSHAGP100

£150.00

EPSON RX 80

£189.95

EPSON RX 80 F/T

£214.00

EPSON RX100

£329.00

EPSON FX 80

£317.00

EPSON FX1 00

£425.00

DOT MATRIX PLUS NEAR LETTER QUALITY

CANON PW1080A

DAISY- WHEEL

JUKI 6100
BROTHER HR15
EPSON DX100

£275.00

£345.00
£349.95
£356.00

WE SPECIALISE
YOU BENEFIT

DRAGON PRINTER CABLES
AND ACCESSORIES IN STOCK
VARIOUS COMMODORE PRINTER
INTERFACES IN STOCK

Educational, G'rnerrt plus Oseas Orders Welcome

Please add 15% VAT. Delivery Printers £10.00. Paper £3.00. Olher 50p
Priritsdsnd Unit 27, Estate Buildings. Hailwav Si.. Huddersfield HOI UP

TEL 0484 514105

Presenting for your Dragon '1'jLftA. . . ^\

1 Death Valley '

'"" ^* MOP

Actual screen photograph

As a sole trader upon Zilog you

must defend the Triad freight lifters
carrying rare and precious minerals
to the star ship Armada, However , the
Tardus, your roost feared enemy, has sent
waves of mutant ants to ensure your
destruction. Defend the lifters for
twelve days and escape else be doomed
to stay in Death Valley for eternity.

This 100% machine code arcade style

■game is available for only

J^-<— J "' — ' fully inclusive.

With superb smootn moving rn -res
colour graphics and sound.

Make cheques / P_ 0' s payable to:

Micro DataS;^; dan

Dealers enquires Frimley,

welcome. Surrey.'

OJne joystick required. Cjlji£ 5DIJ

Rd,

J

34 Dragon User September 1 984

BO CIRCLE UOB, 25) ,2

90 CIRCLE ( 120 T 25) ,2

1 00 DRAW "BM 1 1 5 , 30 ; D5BL2U5"

110 CIRCLE U 14,41) ,9,1,. 30,. 100,1

120 DRAW"BM98,20;R32BLBUi0LiUlL4G4

E2H2L5D1HD10"

130 CIRCLE<114,44) ,4, 1,1,0,, 5

140 DRAW"BM120,43; D5L1D4L1D2L3D1L2

U1L3U2L1U4L1U5"

150 PAINT<119,44) ,3,3

160 PAINT(119,41> ,3,3

170 PAINTC121 , 12) ,3,3

ISO ClRCLE(lO0,50) ,7,1, .8, .5,1

190 CIRCLE < 129, SO) ,7,1, .8, ,5,1

200 FOR A=50 TO 90 STEP 10

210 CIRCLE(115,A) ,2

220 NEXT

230 LINE< 135,50)- C 146,70) ,FSET

240 LINE (85,70) -(95,50) ,PSET

230 DRAW " BMB5 , 70 ; L 1 D2L 1 R 1 D2R 1 BR60U

R1U2R1L1U2"

260 LINE(B5,74)-<100,95) ,PSET

270 LINE(145,72)-(130,95) , PSET

2B0 DRAW ,J BM95,70;U2R1U2R1U2R1D12L1

U2L1U2L1U2BR39U2L1U2L1U2L1D12R1U2R

1U2R1U2" .

290 DRAW"BM102, 102;U3R3L1D1L1U7R1U

1R1U1L1U1L1U1L6DIR4D11USL3U4"

300 DRAW"BH105,94;U1R4U1R4U1R4U1R4

U1R4U1R4U1R4D4L4D1L4D1L4D1L4D1L4D1
L4D1L5"

310 PAINT<106,95)

320 LlNE(lO0,143>-<102,102) ,PBET

Z^O LINE(132,143)-U30,95) ,PSET

340 DRAW"BM115,100;D1D1L2D1L1D1L1D

2BR5BU5D1R2D1R1D1R1D2D10R1D2OL1D10

BL9U10L1U20R1U12"

350 DRAW" BM 121 , 150; H4F2E2G4E2U2D4U

2L2R4"

360 DRAW"BM115, 150; H4F2E2G4E2U2D4U
2L2R4"

370 DRAW M BM112,147;D10L5U2L4D1L3D1
L3U1L2U1L1U2L1R1U1R2U1R4U1R3U1R2U2
R1U1L7U3D3R12"

3S0 DRAW'BMl 19, 147; D10R5U2R4D1R3D1

R3U1R2U2R1U2R1L1U1L2U1L4U1L3U1L2U2

L1U1R7U3D3L12"

390 PAINT (110, 148)

400 PAINT(121 , 149)

410 A=RND<10O0)+10O

420 FOR N=l TO A; A*=INKEY*: IF A*<>

""THEN 690 ELSE NEXT N

430 G05UB 550

440 TIMER=0

450 FOR N=l TO TI:IF INKEY*<>""THE
N 5B0

460 IF TI=<0 THEN GOTO 800

470 NEXT N

4BO FDR N^l TO 10: PCL51 ; PLAY MU*<2

> :PCLS2iNEXT N

TOO SLOW

490 CLS:PRINT"
500 PLAY MU*(1)
510 A*=INKEY*

520 PRINT@457,"PRESS ANY KEY"
530 A*=INKEYS:IF AS=""THEN 530
540 RUN

550 DRAW"BrtlO0,8O;R2D3L2U3RlUlDlRl

D3R1D4L4U4"

560 LINE(9B,90)-(105,100) , PRESET, B

570 RETURN

5B0 TM=TIMER:CLS: PRINT"
BLAM WELL

DONE"

590 M^M+1: PRINT" IT TOOK YOU";TM:"W

ICRO SECONDS"

600 PLAY MU*(2)

610 FOR N=l TO 300: NEXT

620 PRINT "YOU'VE SHOT" ;M; "OF THEM"

630 TI=TI-50

640 PLAY MU*<3)

650 PRINT@457, "PRESS ANY KEY"

660 A*=INKEY*

670 A*=INKEY*:IF A*=""THEN 670

6B0 GOTO 60

690 CLB:PRINT" CHEAT"

700 PLAY MU*<1)

710 GOTO 510

720 liU*(l)="T2L10a3CCC0lC"

730 MU*C2)="Q2T255L255BAGFEDC'■

740 MU*(3)="a3T4LlOEC+EC+EQ!AA"

750 RETURN

760 CLS: PR INT "==— ====*============

============ _, SHOOT OUT BY DU

NK — =========== - 3 1/3/B4 ^ ===

— _ — — ii .

*

770 PR I NT " I NSTRUCT I ONB

' - THE AIM OF THE

GAME IS TO SHOOT " ; INT (TI /50> +1 ? "
MEN BEFORE THEY SHOOT YOU AFTER
EACH MAN YOU WILL BE TOLD HOW M
ANY MEN YOU HAVE SHOT & EACH NEW
MAN WILL PULL HIS TRIGGER A BIT
QUICKER ";
780 PRINT"THAN THE MAN BEFORE HIM
YOU PRESS ANY KEY TO SHOOT
BUT DO NOT SHOOT BEFORE HE RAISES
HIS GUN.

PRESS ANY KEY. "

790 IF INKEY*=""THEN 790 ELSE RETU
RW

BOO FOR N=l TO 50: IF INKEY*=" "THEN
NEXT ELSE CLS: PRINT" WELL DONE YO
U KILLED THEM ALL": GOTO 820
810 GOTO 490

820 PLAY " T5L2Q2G#L5G#L2G#03CD#L 1 G#

L2G#G#CDD#"

830 SCREEN 1,1

840 IF INKEY*=

850 RUN

'THEN 840

September 1984 Dragon User 35

,J^ ,

1/1/lzard
Sfiftwiirc?

TOUCHDOWN ^ST £6.95

Atlirjht landing Sirv-ulatKn praseiled in nigh resolution colour pjraphics f-3 waNeyouto Ind
your anfiritt IhBr? 15 2 realistic "through Hie windscreen" view and delated occkpit controls
including 1 radar screen rugelher wita waging lights and sound on all vital instrument SySlems
anrj a moving runway once taaehddwn ttas Ue*n acn .eoed Choice 01 two itill Uutts JayslicK
quired. ^

DISMON \!Jc^J £7,95

A -3 5K position inrjependent machine coda Disassembler and Mgnilpr 1pr 1he DRAGON lorne
computer Tins relocatable natty contains a lull Disassembler wmn disassembles all 6B09E

mnarmafiiC cades airier laulifies provnted &y Hie toomtar an Fjamirw memory. Crwrtje

memory Mrrve memory. Enamine registers and Eastute machine code. Supplied wim mslruetion
manual

STRATEGY £8,45

A 1*15 n resDlu-licin colour graphics -jvar game ler 1wr) player*. Each player n«s conlrol 0[ a Navy,
an Army end an Airfares and Ihg ebiacl at Hie {fame is IP Destroy all 01 Ihti epfrastng forces r>r
obtain a surrender Irom Ine omar player Comnot rue movement and iir?ng at altypur aircraft.
Ships and tanks in Da.1f.la js well as finances arm provisioning This game is- * challenge with a
diHere-ice 115. adive yet Chess- like Qualities, provide a stimalati ng eipfif -ence ana a la I a1 1un far
the pmes' MnnOiSS*ur. Conies with ntstritctirxi manual Joysticks nsqui red.

EVICTOR £7.95

An angnal Arcade game evict The aliens 1rom (heir sp-l re-generating and rJelended Base
Features bombs lasers, phases and alien spacecraft S skill levels

A sd available:
TjMEPOfTM

Dft*GON STAflTREK
REDALEFlT
ALIENS +
CLOWNS

All Qriess inclusive, mail order, cheques or postal orders to:

WIZARD SOFTWARE, DEPT. DU, PO BOX 23
DUNFERMLINE, FIFE. KY1 1 5RW

Also available from sattuis^ f$)s<!6rt worldwide.

Send large $A£ fTif\. jr lyifi.) lor full pt^gfanj catalogue.

Royalties pax* tor miclvne code OHAGON software.

CB+5

CHAZI PLUMBER

W 95

TRIPLET

E5 AS

it 45

StfASH

tali

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M.S6

tr 95

DECATHLON

ES.9S

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E4.95

£6.95

STAIR WrjflD

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GALLED IS

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FRUITA

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"FANTASTIC DETAIL.. REMAHKABLE EXCELLENT

UcCt»llOr,AL
QRAPrtlCS 100%.
VAUJE Fflfl MONEY 1TO%"
- H-jn- c Curuul 'ig WatWy

Yo*i have to see '1 1o believe if Bowlma. aattirtp aid fielding mtdar tg|a| Joystlct COrtlrtl w Ih
batting and Bowling action in BIG. ANIMATED GRAPHICS. Guaranteed 1o make a Sp*CtriHn
0*ner as Sick JS a airrBt! 11 vou cnuldn'I care (ess aBOUt cricket, you'll be hooked. II you're 1
tan you'll be play ng si night!

HO NEED f D l*f*ITt — Cheek *Hhi ymjr retailer. Of phone your at-dar and pay 1he postman
Orders received belore now desjatetiefr sama day By 1st dass post

PEAKSDFT. 41 DUEEH STREET. RALDERTOK. NEWARK., NOTTS.

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September 19&4 Dragon User 37

Inside the
front cover

Mike Harrison rounds up his reviews with a look at three books dealing with machine code

IN PREVIOUS REVIEWS (Dragon User,
June, July) I looked at a range of books
dealing with Basic prog ram ming through to
controlling the whole machine by means of
its own language — 6809 machine code.
In doing so, I have discussed the advan-
tages Of machine code programming: you
can have complete control not only of your
machine but also over all characters and
hardware features.

Faster execution of instructions (in some
cases by a factor of 10 3 ) and the use of
less memory are attractive features of
machine code, but the drawbacks are also
formidable. It is estimated that a program-
mer can write a program about 1 times as
fast in a high-level language compared to
assembly code. That's just writing the
program: it doesn't include problem defini-
tion and design, debugging and testing
For machine code programming in assem-
bly language you need to know the instruc-
tion set, registers or other features. The
interpreter (or in some cases compiler)
takes care of this in high level languages.

Popular choices

However, almost all microcomputer
programmers ultimately find that they need
some knowledge of assembly language,
most often to debug programs, write I/O
routines or speed up/shorten critical sec-
tions of programs. So where are they to,
turn for help? Our list (Dragon User, June
1984) gives some choices and here I will
look at three of the most popular

Introducing Dragon Machine Code by
Ian Sinclair is an excellent beginners'
guide to this field. The author should have
some skills at explaining elements of
oomputers and electronics having written
over 40 books on the subject aimed mainly
at beginners. The book does not fall into
the trap of assuming that its readers are
already familiar with machine code prog-
ramming and just want to transfer this
knowledge to the Dragon. Nor does it treat
machine coding as a study in itself without
telling the reader how to apply it to the
machine. The author declares two aims;

• To introduce the Dragon owner to some
of the details of how the computer works;

• To introduce the methods of machine
code programming in a simple way,

"ROM, RAM, Bytes and Bits", chapter
one, explains very carefully and deliber-
ately from first principles how eight bits (on
and off lines) combine to make up a byte,
and how Read Only Memory, which can be
read and copied but not changed, is

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different from Read/Write memory (known
as RAM — also referred to as Random
Access Memory).

Have you noticed how often we are told
that certain features of the Dragon can
take values from to 255? Well, a group of
eight bits or switches can represent 2* =
256 different states. So one byte could
have any one value according to the
combination of its switches ranging from
00000000;,= Otnto 11111111a = 255 l0 ,je
2 7 + 2* + 2 5 + 2 4 + 2 3 + 2 2 + 2 1 -l- 2°.
Each of the 32768 bytes of RAM in the
Dragon 32 can store a number in this
range.

Now numbers themselves are not of
much use, but. if treated as codes a variety
of possibilities open up. Many readers will
be familiar with ASCII codes to represent
alpnanumerics and controls to peripherals,
but the Dragon also represents Basic
words as tokens. PRINT, for example, is
memorised in token form as 1 35 and in this
way is Stored in one byte of memory —
much more efficient than having to use
bytes for the ASCII code for each letter,
(Incidentally, this is why we can use "?" in
programs because this also has a token of
135 and when the token is recalled it is
recognised as PRINT and appears so in
lists or edited lines.)

When you use Basic the only com-
mands that you can use are those for
which tokens are provided. Some know-
ledge of machine codes would allow you to

make your own. Hence if you want to do
other than select from the menu of
machine code subroutines provided in
Basic you have to go to direct action on the
microprocessor unit. The author aims to
have you do this.

The book makes sure you understand
what happens in "direct action' 1 when you
Switch on your Dragon so you know what
you are working on. An initialisation routine
(a long machine code program from ROM)
checks the RAM and writes to parts of it
with bytes which will be used later. It also
"cleans up" the areas which will be used
to store instructions and data. Initially,
when power is supplied to the machine it is
full Of "garbage ' as bits are switched on or
off at random The initialisation process
fills each byte with a much more ordered
pattern as you will see if you investigate
thus^

FORN - 13824 TO 13847 : ?PEEK(N); "
";NEXT

Memory storage

The author also sets out to teach you
how a Basic program is stored in memory.
Just above any program resides the vari-
able table list (VTL). This is the part of
RAM used to store the current value of any
variable used in programs. As your prog-
ram runs ihese variable values are con-
stantly read and re -written from this list
according to the program instructions Its
position in memory is not fixed but is
adjusted to fit in the free space above the
program — hence if you add to or shorten
your program the VTL is destroyed and
has to be re-written by running the prog-
ram again. You can find the VTL address
by:

PEEK(27) *256 + PEEK(28)
and information is given such that its
contents can be examined by use of
VARPTR, Stored programs and variables
can then be examined and it is but a short
step to interfering with them. How about a
program where every line number is 1 yet
still runs sequentially (running depends on
the "next line" addresses stored with the
program not on how the lines are num-
bered)? In this was we I earn about the
memory organisation of the Dragon .

Ian also points to why interpreted Basic
is so slow. For example:
10FOHN = 1 TO 50
20 PRINT N 30 NEXT

This requires the action of reading the
PRINT token of 135, and finding where the
correct subroutine is stored. The whole

38 Dragon User September 1 984

I

process will be carried out 50 Times. There
is no simple way of finding it once, then
using it 50 times — we have to have 50
searches.

The action of the microprocessor is
completely automatic and is built into the
chip itself. The snag is that the machine
code programs must work to the same
rules and get the program right (100%
correct is just good enough). If you feed a
microprocessor with an instruction byte
when it expects a data byte or vice versa,
you could well get an endless loop "hang-
ing" the computer with a blank screen and
ineffective keys and reset button. The only
way is off and that means losing your work.
To get you used to these structures Ian
gets you writing and running machine code
so you learn from your own mistakes.

Addresses

The 6809 has the capability to work with
various addressing modes: immediate, ex-
tended, direct page, constant indexed,
accumulator indexed, relative and indirect
Each method has considerable space
devoted to il to ensure understanding and
to supply the reader with a choice before
his own efforts get under way.

Interacting directly with your Dragon is
done by means of a simple machine code
program which rs coaxed out of your grey
matter and placed in a "roped off" area of
memory by use of CLEAR. You also have
to put into the program counter the starting
byte of your program. You can in fact do
this by using the Basic EXEC which
incidentally has another subroutine which
copies the current contents of the 6809
registers into the stack so that on return
they can be recailed for use in any current
Basic program.

fn the absence of an assemble 1 - :r\e
author shows us how to "hand assemble"
some simple routines and POKE them into
memory. He uses examples, each slightly
more complex than the last, as a method
of stretching your understanding to each
new concept. Taking a bigger "byte" at
coding we are shown how to link existing
subroutines in ROM to our own machine
code Thus the ROM routines can be
made to fulfil ends of our own choosing.

Debugging hints abound — if all else
fails add S39 after each memory store
command and then PEEK into memory to
see if it's what you expect. The monitor/
assembler is closely described and longer
programs are prepared for the DEMON
DASM cartridge (DREAM wasn't out at the
time of writing).

One of the main problems of an intro-
ductory book is knowing where lo stop Ian
pitches his book nicely, leaving readers at
a stage where they can start to knit
together programs of their own but with a
thirst for more knowledge. On the launch
pad you are in a position to progress by
examining programs printed in magazines
and books and lo recognise addresses
you might find useful in the future. Some
useful starts to machine code programs
are provided for you to cannibalise. These
include one to key graphics characters
directJy to the screen, to achieve a
keybeep. flicking between text and

graphics and one to move a blob around
the screen. They are presented in a form
suitable for DASM assembly but can be
hand -con verted and POKEd if desired.
The appendices include the 6809 instruc-
tion set and a useful disassembler which
can be typed in.

Inside the Dragon is certainly a treasure
to would-be machine code programmers,
but where do they go from there? Up to
recently, every request of this nature I
have read has been answered with the
mention of two very expensive books. Both
Programming the 6309 and 6809 Assem-
bly Language Programming are American
in origin and were published before the
Dragon came out.

The first of these, by Rodney Zaks and
William Labiak (distributed by Computer
Bookshop), sets out to school you in the
principles of chip manipulation and to do it
right. Ten per cent of programmers, say
the authors, can write successfully wifhoul
recourse to a flow chart of their desired
program. Unfortunately, 90 per cent of the
population believe they belong to this
minority. Thus the authors push readers to
do this elementary task before they start
and thereby avoid "unclean" and "mud-
dled'' programs which take longer to put
right than to write in the first place.

They cover similar ground to the micro-
processor sections in the introductory book
but in a "serious" way — don 1 expect to
enjoy a good read if you buy this book. In
the text book style, there are exercises at
the end of each chapter to make sure
you've been paying attention I couldnt
find any answers to these questions so still
don't know if my answers are correct.

The internal organisation of the 6809 is
rigorously examined with its instruction
formats, their execution and eventually the
signals of the microprocessor chip The
registers need to be fully understood and
this knowledge is relied on in subsequent
chapters. Rapidly Rodney and William
progress to how information is manipu-
lated by instructions, introducing in*
crea singly complex algorithms and trans-
lating them into programs. They examine
the main types of instructions and impor-
tant structures such as loops, stacks and

subroutines, and go on to describe in detail
the six categories of instructions available
on the 6809.

It is not necessary to understand the rale
of each and every instruction to start
programming, just a few essential instruc-
tions of each type will do, However, say
the authors, you will soon want details of
the full set in order to make your programs
as efficient as possible. Here the authors
do a magnificent job devoting 70 pages to
individual descriptions of each member of
the set.

The programmers dream chip is so
named because of the variety of addres-
sing techniques to facilitate data retrieval
within the memory area. To program the
6809 efficiently it is necessary to under-
stand the many addressing mechanisms
and the authors go far enough to ensure
that you stand a good chance of doing so
As in Inside the Dragon (see July's
Dragon User) a considerable weight is
given to input/output techniques, input is
the transfer of data from a peripheral
external to the MPU (keyboard, disk and
so on) to internal computer storage Out-
put is the transfer of data from within the
microprocessor or the memory to an exter-
nal device like a screen, disk or printer.
Rodney and William show how several
input output devices can be managed
simultaneously, and space is devoted to
polling vs interrupt techniques, Benchmark
programs in the case of a parallel transfer
and a parallel-to-serial conversion are
examined and they teach you how to
schedule the operation of multiple
peripherals.

General survey

The task of programming a system
includes not only programming the micro-
processor itself but also the input/output
chips, The 6809 was designed to provide
16- bit microprocessor capability whilst in-
terfacing easily with any of the extensive
6800 family of I/O chips developed for 8- bit
processors and also most 6502 I/O de-
vices. Here the book, by necessity, is very
general and is not tremendously pertinent
to Dragon owners' needs. It surveys the
field of use of the 6609 chip rather than
providing help for the programmer.

Chapters on data structure and program
development conclude this professional
book which I am sure, as a study, does
great credit to its writers. If you intend to
immerse yourself in machine code and
ai ready have substantial knowledge of the
rest of the Dragon then Programming the
6809 wiil be of benefit to you. If you need
to know the precise nature of the MPU to
squeeze out every bit of its potential then
the book is £12.50 well spent. If, however,
you just want a little amusement or want to
sharpen up a few routines in your Basic
program; if you are a novice to machine
code; or if you want a book to give you a
library of practical routines which will make
things happen — then don't bother.

The other 'all or nothing" book and the
last in this series of reviews is 6809
Assembly Language Programming by
Lance A LeventhaL published by Osborne
McGraw-Hill. I found this book a better ►>

September 1984 Dragon User 39

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TWO NEW GAMES FOR YOUR
DRAGON

THERMONUCLEAR WAR — LAZERBYX
After finding your way into the A game of nerve, slraleov
Nato Computer, you are in
control of the weapon sys-
tems. Repel and mounl coun-
ter attacks, track missiles. You
against computer,

and reflexes, Force your
opponent into your lazer
trail, wbffst avoiding the
obstacles yourself (two
players). Joysticks re-
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* Programmer; Send us your programs *

Cheques POs to:
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40 Dragon User September 1984

•4 proposition, it is more readable and
addresses itself to problems and an ex-
planation of their solutions rather than
glorying in the mysteries of the chip itself.
The format of the book is interesting.
Lance uses two different type faces. On
each page and within each paragraph the
important concepts and main ideas are in
bold print. Explanations and elaborations
take up the rest of the space, I found
myself scanning the black type until I hit
upon an idea I wanted to follow up and
then read this closely. In this way the "text
book" atmosphere of the book could be
overcome.

Program details

The hooks stated aim is to pass on
knowledge of the chip enabling you to
program it in assembly language Each
assembly directive is explained and a
run-down given of the different types of
assemblers Some introductory programs
that perform microprocessor talks are
listed. Each program contains:

• A description of the problem

• A statement of purpose that describes
the specific tasks the program performs
and the memory locations it uses

• A flow chart

• A sample problem with data and results

• The assembly language listing

• The hexadecimal object code

• Explanatory notes that discuss the
instructions and methods used.

In this way we learn 8-bit data transfer;
8-bit addition; to shift left 1-bit; to mask off
the most significant 4-bits; clear a memory

WINTER SOFT is giving 50 of our readers
a chance to win its new release, Return of
the Ring, for the Dragon

Having wrested the awesome Ring of
Darkness from its guardian the evil Gron,
you have to return it to its creators, the
Masters of Ring world. The adventure,
written entirely in machine code, took one
year to develop, and normally retails for
£9.95.

ntt^Smt

To win your copy, answer the following
five questions:

Who wrote the book White Gold Wietder?
How many rings does Ringbearer wield?
What Larry Niven novel involves rings?
Which book had Mij the otter as one of its

location; byte disassembly; and to find the
larger of two numbers. Compare this to the
machine code routines found in some
books and you can see why this is only for
the very serious.

The author gives us next a tutorial on
machine code program loops and how to

use them in modules to sum data, (earn to
use negative number elements and find
the maximum value in a block of unsigned
binary numbers. Microprocessors often
handle data which represents printed char-
acters rather than numeric quantities. So
handling 7-bit ASCII coded data has a
chapter devoted to it. This chapter, like all

the rest, is very well written and is probably
ideal for those heavily rnto assembly lan-
guage and certainly those who might use
their 6809 knowledge on other machines
in future years. Its disadvantage is that you
cannot use this knowledge and apply it to
make things happen without further in-
formation.

Recommendations

Neither of the advanced books mentions
the Dragon or the Tandy Colour Computer.
So there are no games or hi-res routines.
Readers also know that it makes sense to
make use of some ROM routines and
Basic statements to save yards of hierog-
lyphics — the books are of no use here
either. So for those who want to go further
into machine code on the Dragon, I would
recommend Inside the Dragon as a better
buy at half the price. If you still, however,
feel attracted to the two further texts
described above don't buy them by mail
order — go to a specialist computer book
shop and have a good look before immers-
ing yourself in machine code from this
angle.

If any of my descriptions have interested
you in any particular book reviewed in
this series of articles, I hope you'll put
it on your birthday list. Some of the books
cost less than a games tape and, who
knows, may set you on the path to fame
and fortune. My thanks go to the various
publishers for providing me with copies
of the books, and to Computer Bookshop
Ltd, distributors of Programming the 6809.
published by Sybex.B

Ringworld

awaits the
rings return

Answer five questions to win Wintersoft's Return of the Ring

there are 50 copies to be won

■y £ -y J y J y fy J y jy J

The forces of evil are out to slop you in Return of the Ring

central characters? sword used in Wintersoft's logo.

Which Wintersoft adventure preceded Re- Your entries must arrive by the last

turn of the Ring? working day in September and winners will

As a tiebreaker, suggest a name for the be announced in our December issue. ■

41 Dragon User September 1984

TOP VALUE LIGHT PEN

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ALSO ON THE SAME AMAZING TAPE!
Are you tired of the Dragon's 'slow" keyboard? If so
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at up to 600 words per minute (nearly twice the world
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You can order your copy of Megamaze by filling in the coupon
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PLEASE SEND ME ONE COPY OF MEGAMAZE FOR THE
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I understand that this payment makes oniy a small contribution to
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interests of all concerned that these costs should be spread as
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program nor to aid any other person in such an attempt, without
the express written permission of the publishers.

I also agree to read the instructions.

Block capitals please

Name , ...

Address .

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42 Dragon User September 1 984

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Learn to touch type
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44 Dragon U&er September 1984

MIKE#f

RRARDS

ADVENTURE

TRAIL

HAVING BEEN promised an early look at
the Dragon versions of the Mysterious
Adventure series, so popular on most
other home micros, a phone call from
Channel 8 revealed that In producing the
master tapes some data had been cor-
rupted and final copies had been held up.
However, we have been promised them
within the next few weeks. Meanwhile a
look at two of this month's adventure
releases, one from a new software name,
Slik Software, and the other the much-
awaited sequel to Pettegrew's Diary;
Operation Safras, from Shards Software

Lame Duck

Any company calling themselves Slik
are asking for trouble if they don't produce
a professional product, and regrettably,
with Sunken City, they haven't. It is rather
disconcerting to read on the cassette
cover that "if thick white vertical Jines
appear on the hi -res screen when you first
run it, press BREAK and type RUN." Sure
enough, each time I've loaded the game
so far those Ifnes have appeared on the
high-res world map which greets you as
you start the game, though they do dis-
appear second time around The main
problem wfth this adventure is quite simply
that it is not very original, but is similar,
and interior at that, to The Ring of
Darkness from Wintersoft, whose follow-
up Return of the Ring is being offered as
a prize in our adventure competition (see
facing page). Why similar? Well, you start
out as a flashing character {so to speak)
on a large scale map, around which you
move using the cursor keys. Where Ring
has bandits and thieves leaping out at you
unexpectedly, Sunken City has mules
and wolves .

When you reach certain points on the
map you can ENTER the location by
pressing the "E" key (one of only five
commands available to you) and the dis-
play switches to that of the location, for
instance Ottawavifle, where you can move
around, again using cursor keys, to buy
supplies, be given tasks by the chief, buy
transport, or visit the armoury This last is
rather unusual as the adventure is set in
1850 and opens in North America, where, I
feel, armour was not the height of fashion
at that time.

The purpose of the adventure is to find
the Wheel of Time, buried In the Sunken
City, and you're doing this on behalf of one

Professor Ells, who needs the wheel to
complete his Time Machine. There are
plenty of adventure elements in the game,
such as the fact that you cannot travel to
South America until you devise some way
of getting past a persistently awkward Red
Indian; and you need to do that to com-
plete the task set for you in Ottawaville,
which may earn you enough money to buy
a boat to set sail and reach another
continent. But there are also so many
boring elements that it is very hard to
recommend the game. Every time the
wolves, bears or whatever leap out at you,
they deprive you of some of your mortality
points, and you always kill them "with a
lucky punch", which somehow earns you a
few sovereigns — I must admit that the
logic of this escapes me, though the
tedium didn't.

By comparison, Operation Safras
wasn't too bad, though I'd better admit at
once that I didn't really care for this, just as
I didn't care for Petti grew's Diary, which
seems to put me in a minority as far as
reviewers are concerned. However, Son
of Petti grew is in three parts, and casts
you as cost accountant, part-time compu-
ter programmer and part-time secret ageni
Rupert James Pettigrew. The first chapter,
"The Awakening," is not for the impatient
as you must wait a full four minutes once
the game has finished loading before you
do a single thing. The graphics and sound
effects are admittedly good, but to have to
sit through them every time you load the
game until you solve this first chapter is a
little too much.

At the end of the preamble you witl be
asked half a dozen questions to test your
observation of what's gone before, and
dogged determination will get you through
these, though I didn't like the way you have
to go back to the first question should you
get a later one wrong. If you're a little
uncertain on question six, why should you
type in the answers to the first five ques-
tions again , . . and again . . . and again,
when you've already proved that you know
the answers? The same applies to the last
code number which you have to work out
in order to load Chapter two. There's some
guesswork Involved here for most people, I
imagine, but get it wrong and you are sent
back to answer those same six wretched
questions yet again.

Chapter two is "The Searching" and is
similar to the second section of Pettigrew,

but here the adventure extends to the
whole of the British Isles rather than just
the streets of London, though that's where
you start off your hunt for your five fellow
agents, held by the enemy in secret
locations throughout the country. You are
given £500, a map of the UK, a list of
towns you can visit, and an agent locator
device, This means that the five agents are
listed across the bottom of the screen, with
a cursor indicating which is nearest you,
and a figure denoting the hours ticking
away for each agent.

In some ways this is a conventional text
adventure, with commands entered in the
usual Noun/Verb manner, though I don't
think it's conventional to be told 'You can't
do that, I'm afraid! 1 ' when you haven't even
touched the keyboard, which happens
constantly. You can travel from town to
town (GO BRIGHTON) by car, rail, plane
or hitch-hiking, and you must decide which
is best in terms of time taken (this is a
real-time adventure) and cash consumed.
I wasn't too successful with the second
part, and although I'd been given the code
word to load Chapter three, "The Return-
ing," I wasn't asked for it and the eight
separate challenges contained in this sec-
tion simply began. The first has you armed
with a sword and facing an axe- wielding
ogre, with room to enter your instructions
beneath the simple picture.

Cryptic clues

Commands such as FIGHT, NORTH
RUN, GO NORTH, WALK, SWING
SWORD, ATTACK, all resulted in the
boringly repetitive Try Another Action,"
until eventually the right combination of
two words led me on to the second
challenge, after a rhyming preamble con-
taining cryptic clues, some referring back
to earlier chapters of Operation Safras.
This time the graphics consisted of a gate,
with the same prompt awaiting your in*
structions beneath. Comparisons with the
several tasks at the end of Pettigrew are
inevitable, and I felt that like that earlier
program, this too was a collection of fairly
mundane Basic programs lacking a cohe-
sive theme, and which run out of steam
very quickly. But I did say I was in a
minority before, so if you loved Pettigrew
you'll probably love this. Whoever listens
to the opinions of reviewers anyway" 7
Pettigrew III i s probably already
underway. ■

September 1984 Dragon User 45

r

46 Dragon User September 1984

It you've got a technical question write to Brian Cadge.

Please dp not send a SAE as Brian cannot guarantee to

answer individual inquiries.

Dragon Answers

Cursor
control

I WOULD be grateful if you could
tell me how to move the cursor
across the screen, revealing a
sentence as it goes along.

I think this would be very
helpful in programming.

Stuart Clyde

East Kilbride

Scotland

A SIMPLE, but effective way Id

achieve this is by the following

routine;

10W LET AS = "The text to be

printed"
11 0. FOR I = 1 TO LEN(AS)
120 PRINT MIDSlAS.i. 11:
130 FOR D = 1 TO 250: NEXT D
140 NEXT I
1S0 PRINT

Here, AS is set up as the text
you wish to priil, and the value
in the delay loop at line 130
controls the speed of printing.

INKEY$
repeat

AFTER purchasing the sound ex-
tension module for the Dragon 32
by J.C.B. Microsystems I felt that
a sound generator would come in
very handy. I have written such a
program which converted the
qwerty keyboard into an organ.

The Dragons INKEVS function
does not give auto repeat, so the
key had to be pressed to get a
note each time, instead of holding
a key in for a continuous note
until the key was released. I tried
using the peeks 337 to 345 but
this turned out very tedious and
the program very slow,

The peek addresses seem to be

the only way I can get an auto

repeat. Can you be of any help?

Andrew Purser

Timpertey

Cheshire

TO OBTAIN an aulorepeat on the
Dragon 32 these same locations
are used, but instead of reading
them, they are reset to 255. The
following line will give a repeat-
ing INKEYS function:
100 FOR 1=337 la 345:P0KE
l,255:NEXT:IS = INKEYS

Here, IS will contain the char-
acter Currently being held down
on the keyboard. The Dragon 64
has a built in auto re peat in both
modes and so the for-next loop
is not required on this machine.

Dragon
Basicode

I HAVE recently become in-
terested in using the BBC
Basicode-2 translation program
with my Dragon microcomputer. I
am sure that it is an idea that will
appeal to many other Dragon
owners,

The BBC does not include the
Dragon on the list of computers
for which a translation program
has been written,, but, the Tandy
TRS-80 computer is included. I
would like to know whether or not
the translation kit for the Tandy
can be used with the Dragon?

Philip Haddock
Nantwich
Cheshire

BY THE time you read this, the
official BBC version of Basicode
for the Dragon should be avail-
able. There is also a version
available at the same price of
E3.5D from Grosvenor Software
(see Dragon User May '84).

A number of readers have
asked if the BBC Basicode for the
Tandy TRS-S0 computer can be
used with their Dragons. The
answer to this is no. Dan I buy
the version for the Tandy as it
cannot be used and cannot be
converted for the Dragon. This
version is in tact for the TRS-8D
models l and II, not lor the
Dragon lookalike the TRS-80
Coco.

Logs out
of line

I AM puzzled about one of the
read-outs from my Dragon 64
when using the fog function.
PRINT LQG{1) returns

1.61385904E-10.

This seems to be completely
out of line with the other logs,
and I wonder if you can tell me if
this would appear to be a fault in
the computer itself?

Denis Swift

Maidenhead

Berks

YOU HAVE pointed out another
bug in the Microsoft floating
point arithmetic, the same bug
thai causes so much trouble
when using the " " operator.

The way to get round this
problem is instead of using; X =
LOG(A), use X
INT(L0GW*1E9|>1E9, This will
give the correct answer to eight
decimal places as on a calcula-
tor.

Safe

IS IT safe to use the remote jack
(from the cassette lead} as a

switch for external devices?

Secondly, when using
CL0ADM and motor on/off a
"clicking" sound is heard from
inside the Dragon. Can this noise
be stopped?

J Hallifey

Batley

W Yorks

THE RELAY used in Ihe Dragon is
only really designed to be used
with cassette recorders. The re-
lay can only handle up to ahout
nine volts al 10D milliamps safe-
ly, this means if could only be
used with a light bulb or some-
thing or similar running off a
ballery.

Of course, you could use it to
control a much bigger relay
which could take a full 240v
mains supply. Such relays cost
about £1.50.

The "clicking" from the Dra-
gon is the relay operating and
cannot be stopped.

Interfacing
a printer

I HAVE the opportunity of buying
a Silver Reed EX-44 electronic
typewriter and a Silver Reed IF-44
computer interface at a very
reasonable price.

I have been informed that it will
work on my Dragon 32. Could
you please tell me if this is
correct?

Also, two other printers I have
been looking at are the Seikosha
GP-100A and the Tandy Colour
Plotter 115.

Are there any problems when
using these two printers with the
Dragon?

Q C Smith

Kettering

Northants

THE Silver Reed EX-44 is a daisy
wheel typewriter which can be
connected to a computer via the
interface box sold separately
(for an extra £100}.

The interface supports the pa-
rallel Centronics type — the
same as used lor the Dragon.
Providing you can obtain the
necessary cable, there should
be no problems with this set-up.

The other two printers thai you
mention are amongst the most
popular that are used with the
Dragon and are easily hooked
up.

Warm or
cold start

1 HAVE come across several refer-
ences to the 'warm'' and 'cold 1 '
start, particularly in connection

with FORTH. Could you please
explain what this is about?

P Asbury-Smitrs
London

A COLD start is what the compu-
ter does when it is first switched
on; that is resetting all its inter-
nal 'note pads' and displaying
the copyright message, A warm
start is what happens when you
press the reset key — the com-
puter is interrupted and then
restarts, but does not reset most
of its pointers, so your Basic
program is not lost. You can
force a cold start by typing POKE
113, D and then pressing reset.

September 1984 Dragon User 47

Classified

DUST COVERS

* DRAGON 32 & 64 *

rtiad*-i6..imi*ui'« in QusMy natural v*yt
with cut-outs tor luminals and iffads
Just send £2.95 (no slamp required I Id:

ALLEN ENTERPRISES
Freepost, Luton LU2 8BR

Trade eiouirtes m<come

CUMANA DISK, single sided. double
density, 10 months warranty. Delta
dtak interlace, £245. Tel; 0491-34115
(Oxfordshire).

DRAGON SOFTWARE, must go:

Telewriter £25; Dasmidemori. £15; 10
cassettes, £3 each: Sanyo recorder,
£10 OfW's Telephone Leeds {0532}
672534.

DRAGON 32 plus joysticks and some
software, as new, £150, Tel: 0*43
775S1,

FOR LISTINGS of Dragon 32'W prog-
rams send £1 and cassette to: Inter-

slella Software, 7 Kmgsley Crescent,
Bulkington. near Nuneaton, Warks
CV12 9PL.

DRAGON 32/64. Belvue Castle adven-
1une. £6.95. Find Ihe way into the
castle, col led treasures bul avoid the
traps. Very good sound effects Send
PO/chequo to K- Products, 10 Pier-
mom Road, London SE22 OLN.

WANTED, Back issues Of Dragon
User. Phone: 021-777 2477.

AMBER 2400 PRINTER for Dragon
including cable and some programs.
£55- Tel No 03S4 373660.

DRAGON TAPES- £3 50 ono. 0732
B32473,

DRAGON USER INDEX

for May S3 to April 84.

tntormtton at your fingertip*.

Avtilabto as Spagvs A4. £1.00

or caaxuitn, £2.50.

Pott ISp per ortSer.

Lubnna Pm*. Lonlas House. Loitlas.

Skcwtfi, HbbIIi, W. Glim SAID 9SD.

CENTRONICS LEADS to* the Dra-
gon, 1.5m long to fit all' standard
Centronics interlace printers,
£13.50 inclusive VAT, postage.
Ou.rjk despatch, cheques payable
to: High Tech Developments, 27
Quantock Road. Weston-super-
Mare, Avon BS23 4DD.

DRAGON SOFTWARE. Popular tiltes,

half-price. Ring Winslow 2984

COMPUTER CORRESPONDENCE COURSES

(INTERNATIONAL!
A GdftlplBCa cours* in BASIC prop, ramming
written specjlicajiy lor lh& DRAGON
ccifflinitflr .
,'w tirls'is writs In Computer Corr. EnursEi
Hit. |. Churchway. West llsley. Nr, New-
bury. Berks Tel I06J5J8I33&

DRAGON listings, send program cas-
sette plus Ef to B. Davies, 7 Fulton
Close. Bromsgrove. Wores B60 2HA.

SOFTWARE worth £160, £60 for quick
saieorsO Swanley 68339.

PRINTER FOR DRAGON, converts a

ZXB1 and 2X printer lo give Dragon
listings, Inledace, lead, and 2X soft-
ware, £39, Sutcliffe Electronics., 15
West Street. Hothrield, Ashtord, Kent.

EDIT 4 — £22 Alldream — £1 7 Sprrnl
— £10 Forth — £10. Lots more. ,1 Q702-
76205-

D RAG ON 32/64 INTERFACE

A new. low-cost ettutatHNlal. multi-purpose
interlace system tor data acquisition and
process control.

designed and da^lppsj to -t nigh proiession-
a siandard for use at Horn* in schools,
colleges, un^ersibes, etc.

Numsrims amplication^ ground the Home, ill
tlw classroom anS IsboraEory. Learn ahaul
roe mysleriEi 0' imer&procBSSor CDMral.
aii aCQuis'lian and general interfacng tec*l
teqiies

Many facilities ataillom lull nslnucl wis
included in manual, along wrrfi Basic and
M.'cddb routines, for us* afld numerous
application notes

Available mail order only

Pice C33.95

(fllus SOppSp i VATi

or tor nvnAWt contact'

ELECTROANALYTICAL
TECHNOLOGY

9 ACCt*6 Road.
W«t Derby. Liverpool L12 4VH

TRACKER. Superb 100% rrvc arcade
game for the Dragon, 10 skill levels,
choice of colours. £2. Swortffish Soft-
ware, 6 Dewlands Road, Verwocd.
Dorset 6M21 6PL

32 SWAP 4 books, 4 games. 1 car-
tridge for RTTY. Ring Raj on 01-743
6856

•

PHVSlCS 0' LEVEL

FOR THE DRAGON JE

REVISION AIDS

\

1 Unit ol Measurement J I 80. 2 Oensily 1
£1.60, 3 Density 2 11 30. * Vapour E1.B0.
5 Plane Mirrors CI .40, 6 Motors and Meters
£1 80. 7 Sound Wives £1 BD or ail 7 tesls
tor LB 99

A Fit* Slant CftteSt wish tvtiy oiisr

Senn CHLOLES PDs tn: P. Perns 68 Poplar

Crescent. Shintey. West Tdthsmri

IDM2HH

MICRO COMPUTER
AUCTIONS

Regular monthly auctions tor all micro hardware and
software.

Send now tor entry form or next catalogue, to:

MICRO COMPUTER AUCTIONS (DU)

Northingtori House

59 Grays Inn Road

London WC1X STL

Tel: 01-242 0012 (24 hours)

DRAWCASTER

SCORE-DRAW
FORECASTING SYSTEM

For serious Pool* investors. Uses current

form PlatSS every learn on the coupon

and Homes-in en those elusivt Draws.

Australian or British C6.SO

(both versions. ES.Sty

Ace pa It Software

3 brooks Road. Formby
Morseyaide L37 2JL

£100 FOR 1000th purchaser o< "Se-
cure"!!! Makes programs unbreakable,
unlistable, urnsavable etc. £1,50 inc
cassette lead for perfect +■ reliable
recc-rrjing, E4.75 inc "Secure"!!!
Cheque.'PO. A. J. Wass, 19 Fern wood
MarpleSK6 5BE

DRAGON 32 OWNERS. Cecil Plays
21 (not just another card game) the
card mad gambling dragon, he loves
winning but hates losing and will tell
you so (hi-res. personality program).
Also: Roulette and Craps. Two superts
hi-rssi games on one cassette, no luck
at Ihe table ihen try the wheel. Each
cassette only £4. 95 or buy two for £6
Cheques.- POs to Snip Software Ltd.
PO Bon. 20, WoKing, Surrey GU21
3QN

BANK ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
really does work on your Dragon.
£5.95. Details 07S9B420 15.

FANTASTIC VALUE! Quality Dragon

listings Two copies lor only £1 ! Send
£1. cassette Sate lo: A. Morgan, 34
Larkfields. NortMieel. Kent

DRAGON 32, plvs disc drive and DMP
100 pnnier, plus discs, software, cas-
sette, recorder, books, magazines,
joysticks, light pen, E600. 051-342-
3274

REMEMBER HOW YOUR DRAGON

WAS SUPPOSED TO HELP VOLfR

CHILDREN LEARN? DOES

IT JUST PLAY GAMES?

Mow yw can buy MAZER*CE and SPEILB0X
1fJf jui1 ES 95 EaCl prngrarn presefltS
mathematics ia<l Spelling in a fliHewnl way
Both use high resolution letters, and all
available memory Eatfi nas been UierJ and
lasted in a Pnrnary School and is mtm-
nwiidaf lor 7" 12 year pl(r,crnloTe*l By ejspen-
enced teadisrs To wtw T ow tapy. send

cheques at POs to:

P- J. PAUL. THE FGRELAHDS, RED LION

STREET. CUES HAM, SUCKS HP5 1EZ.

Please- aim* 21 Oayi tor delivery

JOYSTICKS, £7 00; tapes, books,
£1.00 each. Birmingham 454 9698.

UNREPEATABLE OFFER!! Solve
those loading problems with our high
quality cassette leads, only £2 49,
Oron Software. 64 Prince street, Roch-
dale. Lanes OL1 6 5U.

DRAGON USER

BACK ISSUES

Please send a cheque or postal

order, made payable to Dragon

User (Back Issues}, 12/13 Little

Newport Streel, London WC2R

3LD

DRAGON 32. Joysticks, software,
books, magazines. £160. 0222
499588.

FOR SALE: Dragon 32 pius software,
plus mags, at £100. Tel; 01-996 8932
aher e pm

"PEEKS AND POKES" to stop prog-
rams from being listed, saved, etc. Also
your own exclusive routines from Dra-
gon OS. Plus lots Of other routines for
just E1.75. Cheques to: M, Wilson, 12
Mull Way, Countesthofpe, Leicester
L£8 3RZ

TOP TEAM for the Dragon 32:64.
Features include full match commen-
tary, choice ol team and tactics, group
taWes. extra-time and penalties and
signature tune h E5-95. Breakout, £1.95.
Universal Sofiwate, "Tanglewood".
West Walberton Lane, near Arundel,
West Sussex. Eastergate 3722.

DRAGON 32 LISTINGS. Two quality
copies from cassette by return post £1 .
Sentinel Software, Bannockbrae
House. 54 Pentyla, Baglan Road, Port
Talbot.

OUTPUT PORT

Simply plugs into printer pod and is

easy to use from BASIC or M/C.

Features Open-Collector outputs

to drive relays, led's etc. Supplied

with detailed information.

£14.95 inc. to;

NCJ Electronics

13 Binfield Square

Ella Street

Hull HUE 3AP

BOOV POPPING, Break Dancing

Teach yourself. S.A.E. for details
Dance Publications, 136 Monkhill
Lane, Pontetract WFB 1RT.

BLOCKBUSTER QUIZ 'or two play-
ers Full colour display. Three difficulty
levels. 375 questions. £3. D. Dixon. tS
Hwkins Way. Abingdon OX13 6LB.
DRAGON 32 JOYSTICKS, tape recor-
der, also cabinet, £1 15. Tel: Slough
21910.

COMPUTER WARE Present

* Family lun tw up 10 iftur playefs.

* Bnght. eutaurful grsurnts.

* Fully automatic sewing IhroughoJ iacri
Sima-, mclu*rig double lefler, tripte ward,
etc.

* FHcllHy tot erasing wrong spHlNng end also tor
exchanging letters,

Yqut$ tor just £S.SO including posiage

Also On offer PoolOOn. £3.50:

Cflfwieot 4, EJ.SC ; Noughts * Crosses, ea.50; Tn*

Puzzler, E3.5D;
Edoeational: Mental arilhmalic, ES.5Q; amadratie

Equations (O CSE Maths) E5.50
(AJI priCM inclusive of pottage. Cheo,Lr«s.<P,Q, payable to. COMPUTEHWARE )
For cWalit of our compl«|e range of software send S.A.E. 10;

'COMPUTERWARE'

P.O. Box 318, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 6UX

- - t:

^ ; __±

, . &n

___t__

A

" ZZ%" ZLZ

itiEKU*"^ _

U _ .

4B,Dragon User September 1 984

ADVERTISERS INDEX

A. C. Software 40

A 4 G Computers 40

Abacus Software 36

Andlek Data Design 3&

Ashby Computer Centre.... 40

Campusense 13

Gomputerware 48

Cotswold Computers .. 44

DA.CC- 37

DalatFioe , 37

Datapen Microtech nology 26

□feltasoft 42

DorlingKindersley 44

Duckworth 26

H

Haresoft 7

Harris Micro Software 34

Hemel Computer Centre.... 40
HotCo-Co 20

[
Nerface Publications 34

Jenart Trading 40

Knight Software 26

M

M&O Systems 34

Magic Midnight 37

Micro Computer Auctions 48

Microdeal 17&S2

MicrO-De-Bug 22

O

Oasis Software 46

P.S.L Marketing 4

Peakso't 36

Premier Publications 6

Printerland ... 34

Rainbow 29

S.C.I. (UK) Ltd 43

S.E.S. Co Ltd.,.., 22

Salamander Software 2

Scree ns M ierocom puters 3 7

Shards Software.,. 10

South Mol ton Com puters 3 J

Sporting Forecasts 40

Slatacom Distribution 21

Trojan Products,
Tudor Williams,..

42
44

Voltmace 51

W

Wintersoff. 11

Wizzard Software ,. 36

Zircon Software 40

Here's my classified ad

(Please write your copy in capital letters
on the lines below.)

£020

10.40

EO.K0

E0.BO

n no

£1 ZO

£1.40

£1.60

Ei.ao

£2.00

£2.20

£2.40

E2.60 ,

£2.80:

ea.oo

i.i.20

£3.40

£3.6(1

£3 B0

E4.00

Please continue on a separate sneel a> paper

I make this ., , words, at 20p per word ?so I enclose £.

Name................. ........,.,,

Address ,........„„.„„,

- -

Telephone

Please cut out and send this form to: Classified Department, Dra-
gon User, 12-13 Little Newport Street. London WC2R 3LD

r^i

you've ever been killedliy

evil goblin, flamed

dragon or turned to stone

toy a wizard...

then you need Micro Adventurer -the new monthly
magazine devoted to all microcomputer
adventures, war games and simulations.

Each issue otters a wide range at stimulating features, including:

I Helpline and Contact columns ■ Reviews of the latest adventures

■ Competitions with exciting prizes ■ War gaming advice

■ Adventures to type in and play ■ Profiles of famous adventurers

■ Advice on how to write your own adventures

If all this sounds too good 1o be irue then fill in the lorrn below to make sure
you receive your copv of Micro Adventurer.

SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM

Please sand me 1 2 us ues (o year's sutler pilar.] of Wic ro Ad vemu r&r .

Ljeginnii'igi with the , issue.

Name

Address

Signature.

I;;:Ih

This order should be accompanied by a cheque made

payaa»e 10 Micro Adventurer

UK JUbJCHt>*ri

A year's subscription is £10 00 — please send this form with

payment 10 Micro Adventurer. Subscriptions. Departmeni

Oatf'iaia Hauje. Perrymaum Ra. Haywards Heoth Sussex

US.'Canadian subicrrbers

A year s subscr iption at ii -speeded rores 1 s USS 33 °5 - p«ease

jerid fhisla-fm vjilb paymgr>f to Micro Advenrure* . c'O Byrnes 5

Press International. 205 Easr 42 nd St New Yor*. NY 100 1 7

September f 984 Dragon User 49

Competition Corner

Answers to Competition Corner,

Dragon User, 12/13 Little Newport

Street, London WC2R 3LD

REGULAR readers of this
page may remember that in
the January issue of Dragon
User I made some general
remarks about puzzle-solving.
One of the points that I men-
tioned was to ensure that the
computer is doing just what
you want it to, and it is this that

I would like to take a closer
look at this month.

Take the following simple
problem: which numbers
under 400 have a square roof
that is a whole number? You
might write something like
this:

10 FORN = 1 TO 400
20 S = SQR (N)
30 IF S = INT(S) THEN

PRINT N
40 NEXTN

I know that this is a rather
roundabout way of tackling
such a problem, but it will
illustrate the point in question.
If the above program is run,
the print-out will indicate
answers of only 1 , 2. 3, 4, 8, 9,

I I and 1 6. So what about the
rest? Take the first missing
integer, 5. At some point while
the program was running, it
must have checked the value
25 to determine if its square
root (5) was integral, and, it
seems, come up with the
wrong answer,

If we type in PRfNT
SQR(25) we get the expected
answer, 5 — so this gives us
no indication as to what has
gone wrong — even though
this value was apparently re-
jected by the IF/THEN state-
ment in the program. Now try
PRINT SQR(25)-5 and, surpri-
singly, up pops the answer
1. 8626451 5E-09. This minute
decimal, caused as a result of
minor errors in the calculation
is not big enough to show on

Win £250 software
from Microdeal

Answer Gordon Lee's puzzle to win a selection
of Software from Microdeal
^ r- .. —

^>

*- '■* \

■ "j !.- *■ ' -■""*» i . 1 ^-h,

Wi ■■>

mL L RIGHTS R'E^E RfJ ED,

the display and yet il is still
there to influence any IF/
THEN decisions made on it.
(For a more detailed discus-
sion of this particular difficulty
see Dragon User October,
1983 pages 31-34)

A useful tip to eliminate the
problem is to put the value to
be tested into a string and
then take it out again. If that
sounds a touch odd, just add
this line to the original prog-
ram and run it again.
25 S = VAL<STRS(Sj)

This cures the problem —
the offending digits having
been well and truly chopped
off! And now for something
completely different.

Here is a little problem, In
the following listing can you
say which you would expect to
be printed at line 40 — that is,
what is the third character of
strings AS and BS, Try to
answer this one before run-
ning the program.
10 A = 12345
20 AS - STRS(A)
30 BS = "12345"'

40 PRINT MIDS(AS,3,1).
WIDS(BS,3,1)
If you now type in and run

this program you may be sur-
prised to find that although
M I DS ( BS ,3, 1 ) gi ves a val ue of
"3" — as might be expected
— MIDS(AS,3,1> returns a
value of "2". So why the differ-
ence? Add the line: 50 PRINT
LEN(AS), LEN(BS) and you
will find that AS has grown to
a length of six characters
while BS remains at five; so
what has happened?

Clearly, if we are dealing
with a problem in which it is
important to locate the exact
position of a character within a
string, we could have difficulty.
To take the case of BS first.
Line 30 of the program simply
puts into BS the characters
contained in the quotes. The
fact that they are numbers is
irrelevant to the computer —
they could be numbers, letters
or symbols — or even a mix-
ture of all three. The computer
just regards them as five char-
acters, so MIDS(BS,3,1) will

return the third character —
that is "3". Now, the case of
AS is slightly different. This is
a string created by the compu-
ter to hold value A, which we
have defined in line 10 as
being 12345 However, as this
is a numerical value, the com-
puter needs to know if this
number is positive or negative
and so the first character in
the string is reserved for this
purpose, Of course, if it is
positive, the plus sign isn't
displayed — indeed, it would
be rather tedious if it was, but,
nevertheless, the space that it
would occupy is still held avail-
able, There would be nothing
strange about storing the
value — 1 2345 in a string, and,
in this case, the third character
of the string would be the "2".

It's all a matter of 'you pays
your money and you takes
your choice' — in either case,
so long as you are aware of
exactly what is happening
when you write a program
involving the location of digits
within strings, there shouldn't
be any problem. But, remem-
ber, this only applies to strings
that the computer has created
to hold what was formerly a
numeric variable. Much of the
foregoing will probably be re-
levant to tackling this month's
competition question:

I have in front of me a card
on which I have written a
certain number. If I were to
multiply this number by itself I
would get a ten -digit number
in which each digit — zero to
nine occurs once and once
only. If I were now to tell you
how many digits in my original
number are odd you would be
able to tell me what this num-
ber is. What number have I
written on the card?

Prize

MICRODEAL, the biggest
Dragon software house in the
country and regular member
of the Software Top 10 charts
i$ offering readers a chance to
win £250 worth of its games
and adventures,

Rules

TO WIN this month's prize you
must show both the answer to

the competition and how to
solve it with the use of a Basic
program developed on your
Dragon. Please do not send in
a cassette containing the
answer. As a tie-breaker com-

plete the following sentence in
15 words or less; "I want
Microdeal 's range of software
for my Dragon because ..."

Your entry must arrive at
Dragon User by the last work-
ing day of September. The
winner and the solution to the
puzzle will be published in our
December issue. Entries will
not be acknowledged and we
cannot entef into correspond-
ence on the result You may
only enter the competition
once.

June winner

THE WINNER of June's com-

petition and recipient of a
Canon disk drive from Alpha
Disc is Dierdre McCrea of
Belfast, Northern Ireland, who
correctly slated thai the darts
landed in treble 19, double 7
and double 16.

Horace hunt
winners

THE response to our Horace
Hunt competition was over-
whelming and from amongst a
plethora of replies we have
chosen the following winners
who will all receive a copy of
the Dragon version of Hungry
Horace:

N E Bell, Derbyshire; Berian
Lewis, Aberystwyth; Darren
White, Bromley; Joanne
Crossgrifl, Hatfield; Barry Sed-
don, Wigan.; E Hopkins, Can-
terbury; Darren Ross, South-
wick: C Dillon, Virginia Water;
Mark Spruce, Wolverhamp-
ton; Michael Houghton, Bol-
ton; Jonathan Perrans, War-
rington; James Ward, Pudsey:
Christopher Spiers, Co Union;
Adrian Throup, Keighley;
Stephen LtndOa Wimbledon;
Lee Fish, Cramlington: Elaine
Ferguson, Kilmarnock; D B
Elsen, South pod; A P Hum-
phreys, Reading and A
Whitefield, Kingston ry .

50 Dragon User September 1 984

Sk George now has two choices!

Red or green will slay the Dragon

▲ Nylon encased-Steel shafted joystick with ball and socket joint.

A Fast sprung return to centre,

A Graphite wiper linear potentiometers*

A 12 Months Guarantee.

A 7 day Money back Guarantee.

Complete control at your fingertips ^

The smooth control of the Voltmace delta sprung retu rn joystick is now available

to Dragon owners. Each joystick has been individually tested before it leaves

our factory, following extensive robot testing to prove the design (we

tested it more than a million times). This means that not only will your

joystick be strong, tough and reliable,

but it ensures long life, accurate

control and with the choice of

red or green

fire buttons.

gives instant

recognitio

between t.._

left and right

joysticks,

If you are
not completely
satisfied with the
delta 3d, return it
to us within seven
days for a full refuri'.

Dragon dealers come
out of your caverns!

More stockists
required in some areas.

Made in England

DELTA 3d JOYSTICK £10,00
TWO DELTA 3d JOYSTICKS £19,50
PLEASE STATE COLOURS REQUIRED

Prices include VAT and P&P.

tm

VOLTMACE LTD
PARK DRIVE
BALDOCK
HERTS
SG7 6ED

Tel: (0462) 894410

Callers welcome at the factory— Monday eo Friday,

TA

CO

Rftioo"^

3%

Can you save penguin f /
Wifly from the ferocious mutant
sea lions? Stun them by knocking them against
the walls, or crush them to a horrifying death with

sliding ice blocks. High speed
arcade action game. Full
colour graphics. Music.
One joystick required.

CASSETTE £S
DISK £9.95

Mail Order Sates from

Microdeal Mail Order 41 Truro Rd.

St. Austell Cornwall PL25 5JE

Credit Card Sales E3 ^MH
Phone 0726 3456 s

^^~tmm

Dealers Contact
MICRODEAL DISTRIBUTION

0726 3456
or WEBSTERS SOFTWARE

fcV*Y,

i

MICRODEAL

0483 62222

Selected Microdeal Tilles available Irom computer dealers nationwide or from larger branches ol